Los Angeles County has seen five maternity wards close since 2023, bringing the total number of closures to 16 over the past decade. As a result, hospitals across the county are struggling to meet the needs of pregnant patients. Los Angeles General Medical Center, a teaching hospital, has treated approximately1,400 pregnant patients who arrived through […]
Investors’ Undervaluation of Women’s Health Mirrors America’s Devaluation of Women’s Bodies
For decades, women’s healthcare has been narrowly framed around reproduction and fertility, despite the reality that women’s health extends far beyond these boundaries. At the same time, women are expected to drive the economy, working, caregiving, and managing the health of their families, while the healthcare system continues to undervalue their needs. Until 1985, women’s […]
Shortage of Midwives Globally Increases Health Risks for Pregnant People
Around the world, there is a shortage of nearly one million midwives. The midwife shortage is not just a workforce issue, it is a human rights and safety issue. Mothers, pregnant people, and babies are experiencing deaths at alarmingly high rates due to improper labor care. A midwife is a trained healthcare provider that specializes […]
What is the Pregnant Students’ Rights Act Missing?
In December 2025, H.R.6359, the Pregnant Students’ Rights Act, was introduced by Rep. Ashley Hinson (R-IA-2) and then referred to the House Committee on Education and Workforce. On the surface, the bill is intended to require higher education institutions to provide information to pregnant students to support them through pregnancy and the postpartum period. However, […]
Black Maternal Health Crisis Continues to Plague the United States
On Friday, January 2, 2026, Dr. Janelle Green Smith died from complications during the birth of her first child in South Carolina. Dr. Green Smith was a Black midwife, an esteemed Doctor of Nursing Practice, and an advocate for maternal health and midwifery. Dr. Green Smith’s death joins the many who have fallen victim to […]
A Birth Control Battle: Survivors Take Pfizer to Court Over Depo-Provera
A lawsuit has been filed against Pfizer relating to Depo-Provera, formally known as depot medroxyprogesterone acetate, a progesterone-based birth control injection you receive once every three months. The lead plaintiff, Robin Phillip, who used the shot for nearly 30 years, is a survivor of intracranial meningioma—a tumor in the lining of the brain. Phillip only […]
New Taliban Rule in Afghanistan: No Burqa, No Healthcare for Afghan Women
On November 5, 2025, in Herat, Afghanistan, the Taliban imposed a new edict requiring women to wear a burqa before entering public hospitals. Women patients, visitors, and even medical staff must now wear a burqa to be allowed inside any public healthcare facility. A burqa is a full-body covering that leaves only a small mesh […]
FDA Removes Black Box Warning from Menopause Hormone Therapies
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has removed its boxed warning from more than twenty hormone-based therapies used to treat menopause symptoms, marking a major change in how the agency regulates these medications. The FDA’s update applies to products that deliver estrogen or estrogen-progestin combinations through pills, patches, gels, or sprays. The boxed warning, also […]
Australia Solves the Preterm Birth Crisis: The Prevention Program the US Needs to Adopt
Australia’s nationwide preterm birth prevention program is a medical success and one the United States could learn from. A “preterm birth” is defined as a baby born before 37 weeks, and is the single greatest cause of death and long-term disabilities in children under 5. Australia’s new initiative is the first of its kind across the […]
Taliban Claim To “Protect” Women, yet Bar Them From Seeing Male Doctors and Pursuing Medical Training
Maternal mortality in Afghanistan has reached a dire point, a result of a web of interconnected crises. The return of the Taliban and subsequent international aid cuts have created a healthcare collapse where women are the primary victims. Each factor reinforces the other, leaving Afghan women without care and providers. Countless Afghan women and children […]
The Rise of the MAHA Movement and Implications for Women
The “Make America Healthy Again” (MAHA) movement has exploded in recent years, blending wellness culture, political populism, and deep distrust of mainstream medicine. Under current federal leadership, MAHA is reshaping health policy. But behind its promises of empowerment and clean living lies a troubling pattern: shifting responsibility onto women, amplifying shaky science, and ignoring systemic […]
Mississippi Declares Public Health Emergency as Infant Mortality Soars
Mississippi has declared a public health emergency in response to an alarming surge in infant mortality, a crisis that now claims nearly 10 infants per 1,000 live births in the state, almost double the national average. The declaration marks the first time the state has used its emergency powers to address maternal and infant health, […]
How AI is Fueling a New Wave of Environmental Racism
With the rapid expansion of data centers driven by artificial intelligence, the tech economy is repeating historical patterns of environmental racism. Once again, marginalized communities are left to bear the costs of America’s “progress.” Civil rights leader Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis Jr. defines environmental racism as the deliberate targeting of predominantly BIPOC and low-income communities […]
Policy Shift at the VA Raises Concerns About Discrimination and Access to Healthcare
The Department of Veterans Affairs has made a quiet but significant change to its hospital bylaws, removing language that explicitly protected patients from being denied care on the basis of political affiliation, marital status, and other personal traits. The change came in response to a January 2025 executive order issued by President Trump, titled “Defending […]
Public Health Experts Alarmed by CDC Advisory Committee Overhaul
On June 9, 2025, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. dismissed all 17 members of the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), the independent panel responsible for making evidence-based vaccine recommendations in the United States. Kennedy cited concerns over “conflicts of interest” and a need to restore public confidence in vaccine […]
The Maternal Mental Health Crisis: How America Is Failing Its Mothers
Maternal health crises often make headlines, but behind the statistics on mortality and physical complications lies another quiet epidemic: the mental health of new mothers. And it’s getting worse. According to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), the number of mothers experiencing poor mental health has increased over 60% since 2016. In recent […]
Southern California Fertility Clinic Bombing Highlights Ongoing Threats to Repro Healthcare Providers
“Our mission has always been to help build families, and in times like these, we are reminded of just how fragile and precious life is,” the American Reproductive Centers (ARC) Fertility clinic, located in Palm Springs, California, wrote in response to the recent bombing attack they faced. No members of the clinic were injured, nor […]
Cuts to Women’s Health Initiative Jeopardize Lifesaving Research
On April 21, Women’s Health Initiative (WHI) investigators were informed that the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) will terminate WHI Regional Center (RC) contracts at the end of the current fiscal year, in September 2025. The Women’s Health Initiative is a landmark long-term national health study, launched by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood […]
Manufactured Motherhood: Trump’s Pronatalism Agenda and the Erosion of Reproductive Rights
As the Trump administration moves into its second term, a new cultural agenda has emerged: one focused on reversing the country’s declining birthrate through a series of pronatalist policies. Behind the scenes, the White House has been entertaining proposals ranging from cash “baby bonuses” to government-funded fertility education programs. Though framed as efforts to support […]
Nearly Four Years of Taliban Assault on Afghan Women’s Health Cost Lives
Afghanistan has seen a stark reversal in progress in all sectors of their society after the Taliban took over in 2021. However, one of the most deeply impacted sectors has been women’s health. Before 2021, there had been 20 years of growth in the health sector. Maternal mortality had decreased from 1,345 deaths/100,000 live births […]