Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Federal Family Planning Program Shifting Focus Toward Infertility
The New York Times: Under Trump, A New Focus For A Birth Control Program: Helping Women Get Pregnant
The Trump administration intends to use funds from a decades-old federal program that provides birth control to low-income women to ramp up efforts to help aspiring mothers get pregnant, signaling a shift in policy that will appease both religious conservatives and adherents of its Make America Healthy Again agenda. The first sign of the change appeared on a little-noticed government website last week, in a post offering a $1.5 million grant to start an “infertility training center.” (Kitchener and Gay Stolberg, 7/18)
St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Planned Parenthood Cuts St. Louis Workforce Amid 'Defunding'
Planned Parenthood Great Rivers is laying off 10 St. Louis-area employees. The organization said Friday the move prioritizes the needs of patients and the sustainability of its six health centers, years after Missouri politicians and regulators removed Planned Parenthood from the state’s Medicaid program, and as the Trump administration works to keep federal funding from abortion providers. (Suntrup, 7/18)
North Carolina Health News: Abortion Restrictions Can Affect How Families Grow — Or Don’t
Jaycee Foran from Holly Springs has a 3-year-old son. She had planned to start trying for her second child around this time, always envisioning multiple kids running around the house. But not anymore. At least not for the foreseeable future. (Crumpler, 7/21)
The Washington Post: Women Feel More Anger As They Age, But Show It Less, Study Suggests
Women feel more anger but express less of it as they age, according to a recent analysis in the journal Menopause. Researchers looked at health reports and menstrual data from 501 participants in the Seattle Midlife Women’s Health Study, analyzing a subset of data from 271 women to look for possible connections between age, reproductive stage and anger in women. The women who were studied were between 35 and 55 and still menstruating. (Blakemore, 7/19)
CNBC: Weight Loss Drugs Could Help Treat PCOS
For well over a decade, Grace Hamilton, 27, experienced hair loss, heavy periods, infrequent menstrual cycles, mental health issues and difficulty losing weight without knowing why. It wasn’t until 2023 when she was diagnosed with polycystic ovary syndrome, or PCOS, a hormonal disorder common among women of reproductive age. (Constantino, 7/20)
The Washington Post: What Are The Odds Of Having A Boy Or Girl? It's Not Random, A Study Shows
A study published Friday in the journal Science Advances describes the odds of having a boy or girl as akin to flipping a weighted coin, unique to each family. It found evidence that an infant’s birth sex is associated with maternal age and specific genes. The findings challenge assumptions that birth sex is random. They mirror the results of similar studies in Europe that have also found that birth sex does not follow a simple 50-50 distribution. (Malhi, 7/18)
