Tag: Birth control

Thailand uses a birth control vaccine to curb its elephant population

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BANGKOK — BANGKOK (AP) — Thailand has begun using a birth control vaccine on elephants in the wild to try and curb a growing problem where human and animal populations encroach on each other — an issue in areas where farms spread into forests and elephants are squeezed out of their natural habitat.

The initiative is part of efforts to address confrontations that can turn deadly. As farmers cut down forests to make more farmland, elephants are forced to venture out of their shrinking habitats in search of food.

Last year, wild elephants killed 30 people and injured 29 in Thailand, according to official figures, which also noted more than 2,000 incidents of elephants damaging crops.

Sukhee Boonsang, director of the Wildlife Conservation Office, recently told The Associated Press that controlling the wild elephant population has become necessary as numbers of elephants living near residential areas rises sharply, increasing the risk of confrontations.

The office obtained 25 doses of a U.S.-made vaccine and conducted a two-year trial on seven domesticated elephants — using up seven doses of the vaccine — which yielded promising results, he said. He explained the vaccine doesn’t stop female elephants from ovulating but prevents eggs from being fertilized.

Then, in late January, the vaccine was administered to three wild elephants in eastern Trat province, he said, adding that authorities are now determining which areas to target next as they prepare to use up the remaining 15 doses.

The vaccine can prevent pregnancy for seven years and the elephants will be able to reproduce again if they don’t receive a booster after that time expires. Experts will closely monitor the vaccinated elephants throughout the seven-year period.

The vaccination drive has drawn criticism that it might undermine conservation efforts. Thailand has a centuries-old tradition of using domesticated elephants in farming and transportation. Elephants are also a big part of Thailand’s national identity — and have been officially proclaimed a symbol of the nation.

Sukhee said the program targets only wild elephants in areas with the highest rates of violent human-elephant conflict. Official statistics show a birth rate of wild elephants in these regions at approximately 8.2% per year, more than double the national average of around 3.5%.

About 800 out of the nation’s approximately 4,400 wild elephants live in these conflict-prone areas, Sukhee said.

“If we don’t take action, the impact on people living in these areas will continue to grow until it becomes unmanageable,” he said.

In addition to the contraception vaccine, authorities have implemented other measures to reduce conflict, Sukhee said, such as creating additional water and food sources within the forests where elephants live, constructing protective fencing, and deploying rangers to guide elephants that stray into residential areas back into the wild.

A court-ordered operation earlier this month to remove wild elephants that have repeatedly clashed with locals in northeastern Khon Kaen province sparked a public outcry after one elephant died during the relocation process.

An initial autopsy revealed that the elephant died from choking after anesthesia was administered ahead of the move, officials said.

The Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation carried out the relocation effort, and its director general, Athapol Charoenshunsa, expressed regret over the incident while insisting that protocol was followed properly. He said an investigation was underway to prevent such incidents from happening again.

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February 13, 2026
Nuance needed on birth control research study results

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As misinformation about women’s health spreads faster than ever, doctors say new research on the risks of hormonal birth control underscores the challenge of communicating nuance in the social media age.

The massive study, which was conducted in Sweden and tracked more than 2 million teenage girls and women under age 50 for more than a decade, found that hormonal contraception remains safe overall, but also found small differences in breast cancer risk based on the hormones used in the formulation. In addition, the researchers observed a small, short-term rise in breast cancer diagnoses among current or recent users. Those findings are consistent with prior large studies, including a 2017 Danish registry analysis and a 2023 meta-analysis.

It was published online Oct. 30 in JAMA Oncology.

Doctors say these study results won’t change how they advise patients and that women should not stop using their birth control.

Still, TikTok is flooded with factually incomplete warnings that contraceptives cause cancer and are as dangerous as smoking. Reproductive health advocates warn that studies like this can easily be taken out of context online and be reduced to a single alarming number.

Case in point: The study reported that women who had used hormonal birth control had about a 24% higher rate of breast cancer than women who hadn’t. But because breast cancer is still uncommon in younger women, that works out to an increase from roughly 54 to 67 breast cancer cases per 100,000 women per year — about 13 extra cases per 100,000 women, or about one extra case per 7,800 users of hormonal contraceptives per year.

Co-authors Åsa Johansson and Fatemeh Hadizadeh, epidemiologists at Uppsala University, said the rise is modest and short-term, with risk highest during current use and fading within five to 10 years after stopping.

Rachel Fey — interim co-CEO of Power to Decide, a group whose mission is to provide accurate information on sexual health and contraceptive methods — said that kind of nuance is exactly what tends to disappear on social media. “I get really angry at this because it’s designed to scare people like me away from birth control, which has made my life so much better in so many ways,” she said. “It’s really frustrating … especially when it’s given without context. And then in this era of social media, it can just take off without anybody who knows what they’re talking about providing that context.”

The researchers also found the risk was slightly higher with certain progestins such as desogestrel — found in combined oral contraceptives like Cyred EQ, Reclipsen, Azurette, and Pimtrea — but did not increase with others, such as medroxyprogesterone acetate injections, sold under the brand name Depo‑Provera.

How to interpret the findings

Some experts say the results should be viewed with care because the study counted both invasive breast cancers and early, noninvasive lesions known as in situ tumors, growths that may never become life-threatening. Including these precancerous cases could make the overall risk of clinically significant disease appear higher than it is.

“A substantial proportion of the ‘cases’ would never have progressed to invasive breast cancer,” said Lina S. Mørch, a senior researcher and team leader at the Danish Cancer Institute. Mørch was not associated with the Swedish study. She added that experts should wait for more data separating early-stage and advanced cancers before making new rules or warnings about specific hormones.

The doctor-patient conversation

Even as scientists debate how to interpret the finer points of the data, physicians emphasize that for most patients, the study reinforces what they already discuss in the exam room: that hormonal birth control is broadly safe, and decisions should be tailored to each woman’s needs and values.

Katharine White, chief of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Boston Medical Center, said this study won’t change how she talks to her patients.

“When counseling patients about their contraceptive options, I focus on their past experiences with birth control, their medical history, and what’s important to them about their birth control method and pregnancy planning (if applicable),” White wrote in an email. “Side effects and risks of methods are already a key part of my counseling about both hormonal and non-hormonal methods.”

Other doctors noted there are other contraceptive options.

Eleanor Bimla Schwarz, chief of General Internal Medicine at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital, said, “For those who prefer hormone-free contraception, the copper IUD offers safe, convenient, highly effective contraception for over a decade after placement, and is rapidly reversible when pregnancy is desired,” referring to a type of long-acting intrauterine device.

Mary Rosser, director of Integrated Women’s Health at Columbia University Irving Medical Center, said this was a large, high-quality study that looked at many types of hormones over many years. But she added that doctors shouldn’t change their advice yet.

Johansson and Hadizadeh stressed that the results should guide shared decision-making, not cause alarm. “It may be reasonable to consider formulations associated with lower observed risk in our data,” they said. They noted that products containing medroxyprogesterone acetate, drospirenone, or levonorgestrel were linked to lower risk, while long-term use of desogestrel-only contraceptives might be best avoided when other options fit.

Keeping the risk in perspective

Hormonal birth control provides many health benefits beyond pregnancy prevention. It can lighten heavy periods, ease pain from endometriosis, and lower the risk of ovarian and uterine cancers for years after stopping. Mørch noted that even small risks are worth discussing but said decisions should be guided by women’s “values and preferences.”

White said it’s important to see the big picture. “The risk of an unintended pregnancy is 85% for people who do not use contraception—so any risks of birth control need to be weighed against the risk of an unexpected pregnancy,” she wrote.

KFF Health News is a national newsroom that partners with PolitiFact and produces in-depth journalism about health issues.

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November 24, 2025
South Carolina Looks at Most Restrictive Abortion Bill in the US as Opponents Keep Pushing Limits

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COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Sending women who get abortions to prison for decades. Outlawing IUDs. Sharply restricting in-vitro fertilization. These are the strictest abortion prohibitions and punishments in the nation being considered by South Carolina lawmakers, even as opponents of the procedure are divided over how far to go.

The bill faces a long legislative path and uncertain prospects, even if it clears the state Senate subcommittee that’s reviewing it.

But the measure up for a second hearing Tuesday would go further than any considered since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, as abortion remains an unsettled issue in conservative states.

The proposal would ban all abortions unless the woman’s life is at risk and eliminates exceptions for rape and incest victims up to 12 weeks. Current law blocks abortions after cardiac activity is detected, which is typically six weeks into a pregnancy, before many women know they are pregnant.

The proposal would also go further than any other U.S. state. Women who get an abortion and anyone who helps them could face up to 30 years in prison. It appears to ban any contraception that prevents a fertilized egg from implanting. That would ban IUDs and could strictly limit in-vitro fertilization.

Providing information about abortions would be illegal, leaving doctors worried they couldn’t suggest legal abortion elsewhere.

OB-GYN Natalie Gregory said passing a bill like this would make so many discussions in her practice — from contraceptives to losing a pregnancy to in-vitro fertilization options — a “legal minefield” that could have her risking decades in prison.

“It constitutes a unconstitutional reach that threatens the very fabric of health care in our state,” she said during an eight-hour public hearing on the bill last month, adding that the proposal is both a waste of time and public money.

Abortion opponents are split over punishing women

The proposal has even split groups that oppose abortion and once celebrated together when South Carolina passed the six-week ban in 2021, a trigger law set to take effect if Roe v. Wade was overturned.

South Carolina Citizens for Life, one of the state’s largest and oldest opponents of abortion, issued a statement the day of last month’s hearing saying it can’t support the bill because women who get abortions are victims too and shouldn’t be punished.

On the other side, at least for this bill, are groups like Equal Protection South Carolina. “Abortion is murder and should be treated as such,” the group’s founder Mark Corral said.

Messaging of the past keeps abortion opponents apart

Mary Ziegler, a law professor at the University of California at Davis who has written extensively about abortion, said the divide stems from longstanding messaging that labeled abortion murder while avoiding punishment of women.

Ziegler refers to groups pushing for more penalties and restrictions as “abolitionists” and said their success in reshaping laws in conservative states, as well as shifting the broader political climate, has emboldened them to push ideas that don’t appear to have broad public support. They also have enough influence to get lawmakers to listen.

“It’s not going to go away. The trajectory keeps shifting and the abolitionists have more influence,” Ziegler said.

As the nation’s social and political discussions lurch to the right, with debates over whether same-sex marriage should be made illegal again or whether women should work outside the home, Ziegler said it has become easier to push for restrictions that might have never been brought before legislatures before.

“There is more breathing room for abolitionists now,” she said.

What could happen with the South Carolina Senate bill

A similar House bill last year got a public hearing but went no further. As the subcommittee met, Republican House leaders issued a statement that they were happy with the current state law and that bill went nowhere.

But things are less stable in the Senate, where nine of the 34 Republicans in the 46-member chamber were elected after the current law was passed. Three of them unseated the Senate’s only Republican women, a trio who called themselves the Sister Senators after helping block a stricter abortion ban after Roe v. Wade was overturned.

Republican Sen. Richard Cash, who sponsors the bill and is one of the Senate’s most strident voices against abortion, will run Tuesday’s subcommittee. He acknowledged problems last month with potentially banning contraception and restricting the advice doctors can give to patients. But he has not indicated what changes he or the rest of the subcommittee might support. Six of the nine members are Republicans.

GOP Senate leaders said there is no guarantee if the bill passes out of the subcommittee that it goes any further.

“I can say this definitively — there has been not only no decision made to bring up that bill, there’s been no discussion about bringing up that bill,” Senate Majority Leader Shane Massey said.

Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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November 15, 2025
This Birth-Control App Aims to Serve a Women’s Health Taboo—With a Multibillion Dollar Market

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Elina Berglund, the co-founder and co-CEO of Natural Cycles, was user zero for the first-ever FDA-cleared birth control app. Now she’s building for the next phase of her life—and the lives of millions of other women. On Tuesday, Natural Cycles launched its long-awaited product for women who are navigating what she calls the “black box” of perimenopause.

“We want to be the trusted partners of women as they go through these different stages throughout their reproductive life. If they are in need of natural birth control, we are there for them—when they plan a pregnancy, as they go through pregnancy, postpartum,” Berglund says. “What’s really been missing is the perimenopause mode.”

Perimenopause refers to the period of time when a woman’s body transitions from having menstrual cycles to menopause. It typically occurs in a woman’s 40s, but can begin as early as her mid-30s or as late as her 50s. Women spend on average about four years in perimenopause but it can last as long as eight, according to the Cleveland Clinic. It is characterized by irregular periods, mood changes, and sleep disruptions, among other things.

“It’s such an important part of a woman’s reproductive journey that really affects her body, her health, her mind,” Berglund says.

An Inc.com Featured Presentation

Natural Cycles’ latest offering, called NC Perimenopause, uses a proprietary algorithm to analyze users’ cycle patterns, symptoms and biometrics such as temperature and heart rate to read hormonal shifts. The algorithm can help determine whether a user may be in perimenopause and her likely stage. The window Natural Cycles provides women into perimenopause can help them understand the nature and severity of their symptoms and determine whether lifestyle or medical interventions—like hormone replacement therapy—may be in order.

Photo: Courtesy company

“It’s a field where there’s so much uncertainty. Many women [are] feeling they’re going crazy, and it’s hard when they go to their doctor,” Berglund says. “Since the hormones change so much, whatever you measure that day is not really giving the full picture, but we can follow women over time.”

The release of the perimenopause product brings the number of Natural Cycles’ offerings available in the app to five. Alongside the flagship Birth Control mode, there is Plan Pregnancy, Follow Pregnancy, Postpartum, and now Perimenopause. As the company grows its offerings, its user base is growing, too. Berglund says Natural Cycles recently reached over 5 million registered users. The company is based in Stockholm, Sweden, but has offices in New York City and Geneva; it has 150 employees total. In 2018, it became the first mobile medical app to achieve clearance from the Food and Drug Administration for marketing as a contraception method.

The company, which is profitable, achieved 70 percent growth in its annual recurring revenue (ARR) in 2024 and has a goal of hitting $100 million in sales by the end of this year.

Alongside the Perimenopause mode in the Natural Cycles app, the company also released its first wearable, the NC Band, which is meant to be worn at night and measure heart rate and temperature as a proxy for hormones. Berglund says the band is available to existing Natural Cycles users and for new perimenopause users for now. It costs $99.99 for existing users, or $49.99 with purchase of a Natural Cycles annual plan. Natural Cycles is eligible for reimbursement by a variety of health insurance providers.

Berglund says she was inspired and motivated by her users to create a perimenopause offering. As millennials approach and enter into perimenopause, she says, they are demanding more and tend to be bolder than past generations in discussing their experiences.

“We have quite a few women that have been with us for a decade, and many of them are now in their 40s,” she says. “They’re seeing what’s going on, but they’re asking for something more, and that’s what we want to do.”

Despite the fact that women spend a significant portion of their lives in perimenopause, there is comparatively little support or education around it. A 2023 survey found that more than 80 percent of women had received no menopause education in school whatsoever. Plus, a separate 2023 survey of OBGYN residency program directors noted that more than 90 percent agreed that residents should have access to standardized menopause curriculum, but only about a third actually did. It comes as little surprise then that there is expected to be a surge in the market for menopause-related products, including dietary supplements and other over-the-counter support products. Research and Markets noted in July that the global menopause market could reach $24.35 billion by 2030.

Berglund is also working to destigmatize perimenopause and menopause through education. As with the other modes, Natural Cycles offers educational resources, science-backed guides and AI-generated insights for women, and can support women through medical or natural interventions.

“Until now, [perimenopause has] been very taboo,” Berglund says. “But we’re trying to put a more empowering spin on the whole thing, because life doesn’t end at 40 for us. There’s so many amazing decades left.”

It’s a realization that Berglund, 41, has come to herself, as well. During the process of testing out the perimenopause algorithm, Berglund discovered she was in early perimenopause.

“I feel good about it. My symptoms make sense,” she says. “I’m curious for what will come next as I go through this lifetime. I kind of look forward to also not needing birth control one day. I’m happy with the children I have.”

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October 14, 2025
Nearly a third of people using over-the-counter birth control pills previously used nothing, study finds

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Two years after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the first over-the-counter birth control pill, new research is looking at who’s switching to it and why.

In the study, published Monday in JAMA Network Open, researchers used survey data from 986 people, ages 15 to 45, in 44 states who obtained the over-the-counter pill either online or at a pharmacy. They found that a significant portion of users shifted to the over-the-counter pill from a less-effective method of birth control or from using no contraception at all.

Of those surveyed, they found a 31.8 percentage point increase in use by people who previously used no contraceptive method. A 41 percentage point increase was seen in those who switched from a less-effective method, like condoms or emergency contraception.

Opill, the over-the-counter, progestin-only pill from drugmaker Perrigo, provides an option for obtaining oral contraceptives without needing to first see a health care provider. Allowing people to access the pill without a prescription was done in hopes of reducing barriers to access, according to the FDA’s news release at the time of approval, which noted that almost half of the 6.1 million pregnancies in the U.S. each year are unintended.

The new research “is one of the first studies to show that over-the-counter birth control pills are reaching the very people they’re meant to help — those who face the greatest barriers to care,” lead author Dr. Maria Rodriguez, professor of obstetrics and gynecology in the Oregon Health & Science University School of Medicine, said in a news release.

Those accessing the over-the-counter pill were more likely than prescription users to be uninsured, younger (ages 15-20) and living in rural areas, according to the study.

The most common reason people gave in the survey for choosing the OTC pill was that it didn’t require an appointment, followed by those who said they didn’t have a regular physician.

“At a time when pregnancy is becoming even more dangerous in the United States — especially for people of color, those with low incomes, and those living in rural communities — our findings underscore that OTC contraception is a powerful tool for reproductive autonomy,” Rodriguez said.

Dr. Jessica Shepherd, a board-certified OBGYN and Chief Medical Officer of the healthcare company Hers, said the study’s findings underscore both the progress and persistent gaps in reproductive healthcare.

“While greater access to contraception without prescriptions can be life-changing for women with limited resources, it also highlights how deeply the repercussions of unplanned pregnancies still ripple through healthcare systems and communities,” Shepherd, who was not part of the study, told CBS News. “Unplanned pregnancies often result in higher maternal and infant health risks, financial strain, and long-term socioeconomic challenges-consequences that weigh most heavily on women who already face barriers to care.”

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Sara Moniuszko

Sara Moniuszko is a health and lifestyle reporter at CBSNews.com. Previously, she wrote for USA Today, where she was selected to help launch the newspaper’s wellness vertical. She now covers breaking and trending news for CBS News’ HealthWatch.

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August 18, 2025
Condoms, other over-the-counter birth control methods should be fully covered by insurance, White House says

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Washington — People with private health insurance would be able to pick up over-the-counter birth control methods like condoms, the “morning after” pill and birth control pills for free under a rule the White House proposed Monday.

Right now, health insurers must cover the cost of prescribed contraception, including birth control or even condoms that doctors have issued a prescription for. But the new rule would expand that coverage, enabling millions of people on private health insurance to pick up free condoms, birth control pills or “morning after” pills from local storefronts without a prescription.

The proposal comes days before Election Day, as Vice President Harris affixes her presidential campaign to a promise of expanding women’s health care access in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to undo nationwide abortion rights two years ago. Harris has sought to craft a distinct contrast from her Republican challenger, Donald Trump, who appointed some of the justices who issued that ruling.

“Today’s announcement builds on the Biden-Harris Administration’s strong record of defending access to reproductive health care and commitment to ensuring that women have the freedom to make deeply personal health care decisions, including if and when to start or grow their family,” Jennifer Klein, the director of the White House Gender Policy Council, said in a statement.

Klein said the administration “is taking bold action to expand coverage of contraception for the 52 million women of reproductive age with private health insurance.”

The emergency contraceptives that people on private insurance would be able to access without costs include levonorgestrel, a pill that needs to be taken immediately after sex to prevent pregnancy and is more commonly known by the brand name “Plan B.”

Without a doctor’s prescription, women may pay as much as $50 for a pack of the pills. And women who delay buying the medication in order to get a doctor’s prescription could jeopardize the pill’s effectiveness, since it’s most likely to prevent a pregnancy within 72 hours after sex.

If implemented, the new rule would also require insurers to fully bear the cost of the once-a-day Opill, a new over-the-counter birth control pill that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved last year. A one-month supply of the pills costs $20.

Federal mandates for private health insurance to cover contraceptive care were first introduced with the Affordable Care Act, which required plans to pick up the cost of FDA-approved birth control that had been prescribed by a doctor as a preventative service.

The proposed rule expands on that mandate.

It’s being proposed by the Departments of Health and Human Services, Labor, and the Treasury and would come into effect in 2025 if finalized, the Reuters news agency reports.

It wouldn’t impact people on Medicaid, the insurance program for the poorest Americans. States are largely left to design their own rules around Medicaid coverage for contraception, and few cover over-the-counter methods like Plan B or condoms.

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October 21, 2024
Appeals court spikes Tennessee’s bid to get family planning dollars despite abortion rule

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NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — A federal appeals court has shot down Tennessee’s attempt to collect millions of dollars in family planning funds without complying with federal rules requiring clinics to provide abortion referrals due to its current ban on the procedure.

Last year, Tennessee’s Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti filed a federal complaint seeking to overturn the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ decision to disqualify the state from receiving money offered through a family planning program known as Title X. A lower court later determined that Tennessee was unlikely to succeed and the state appealed that decision.

In 2021, the Biden administration announced that clinics that accept Title X funds must offer information about abortion. However, Skrmetti’s argued that HHS did not alert officials how the rule would apply in states with abortion bans now allowed under the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2022 decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.

Yet the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals argued in a ruling Monday that Tennessee could not use its abortion ban law to “dictate eligibility requirements” for Title X funding. The 31-page ruling means the federal government will not reinstate Tennessee’s Title X funding while the lawsuit continues through the courts.

Furthermore, the appeals court said that the state was not obligated to accept the money and noted that the Tennessee Legislature approved of replacing the lost federal dollars with state funding.

“Tennessee was free to voluntarily relinquish the grants for any reason, especially if it determined that the requirements would violate its state laws,” the ruling stated.

A spokesperson for Skrmetti’s office said they were “reviewing the opinion and considering next steps.”

Tennessee has been a recipient of the program since it launched in 1970, recently collecting around $7.1 million annually to help nearly 100 clinics provide birth control and basic health care services mainly to low-income women, many of them from minority communities.

Under the latest rule, clinics cannot use federal family planning money to pay for abortions, but they must offer information about abortion at the patient’s request.

Tennessee bans abortion at all stages of pregnancy but includes some narrow exceptions.

In March of 2023, HHS informed Tennessee health officials that the state was out of Title X compliance because of its policy barring clinics from providing information on pregnancy termination options that weren’t legal in the state — effectively prohibiting any discussions on elective abortions. The state defended its policy and refused to back down, causing the federal government to declare that continuing Tennessee’s Title X money was “not in the best interest of the government.”

HHS later announced that Tennessee’s Title X funds would largely be directed to Planned Parenthood, the leading provider of abortions in the United States, which would distribute the money to its clinics located in Tennessee.

“Millions of people across the country rely on essential care — like birth control, STI screenings and treatment, cancer screenings, and other key sexual and reproductive health care services — funded by Title X,” said Ashley Coffield, CEO of Planned Parenthood of Tennessee and North Mississippi in a statement. “The state’s decision not to comply with all-options counseling is playing politics with our bodies.”

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August 28, 2024
Republicans Proudly Declare They’re Against Making Contraception a Federal Right

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Republicans get very huffy when people accuse them of hating women and wanting to control pregnant people’s bodies—yet instead of proving that neither of those things are true, they do stuff like:

Most recently not helping their cause? Refusing to make contraception a federal right, which they insist is totally unnecessary despite all of the above. On Wednesday, Senate Republicans rejected the Right to Contraception Act, a Democratic bill that would stop the federal government and states from passing laws limiting access to birth control. Speaking to The Washington Post, Senator Joni Ernst called the bill “fear-mongering,” and introduced one that does not protect access to the morning-after pill. Senator John Cornyn claimed Democrats are holding a “phony vote because contraception to my knowledge is not illegal. It’s not unavailable. To suggest that it’s somehow in jeopardy should be embarrassing, but it’s hard to embarrass some people around here.”

Of course, what people like Cornyn don’t note is that that’s the exact argument Republicans used to make about abortion, before the federal right to the medical procedure was summarily scrapped. Referring to Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas’s 2022 declaration that the court “should reconsider” some of its past decisions, including the one protecting access to contraception, Senator Mazie Hirono told ABC News: “Whenever a Supreme Court justice, especially in the MAGA far right, says he wants to revisit a case, you can bet that he’s looking to overturn.” In a speech on the Senate floor on Wednesday, Minority Leader Chuck Schumer warned: “A few years ago it was Roe. A few years from now it could be something else. We are kidding ourselves if we think the hard right is done with their attacks on reproductive rights.”

Last month, Donald Trump was asked in an interview, “Do you support any restrictions on a person’s right to contraception?” And rather than saying a simple “no,” he responded: “We’re looking at that, and I’m gonna have a policy on that very shortly, and I think it’s something that you’ll find interesting. And it’s another issue that’s very interesting, but you will find it, I think, very smart; I think it’s a smart decision. But we’ll be releasing it very soon.”

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June 5, 2024
Healey pushes for federal contraception protections

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BOSTON — Gov. Maura Healey is leading a group of Democratic chief executives in urging Congress to approve a bill that would protect access to contraception.

The Right to Contraception Act, which is co-sponsored by Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., would guarantee the legal right for individuals to get and use contraception and for health care providers to provide contraception, information, referrals and services related to contraception.

Democrats are leaning into efforts to protect access to birth control as part of their election year push on reproductive rights, warning that Republicans in Congress and former President Donald Trump will seek to set new nationwide restrictions on contraception, if Trump is elected in November.

On Monday, Healey joined Democratic Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker in calling on lawmakers to approve the plan, and blasting Republicans for opposing the proposed changes.

“This legislation would safeguard the fundamental right to contraception,” Healey said in remarks during a live streamed briefing on Monday, sponsored by groups pushing for the bill’s passage.

“It’s so important, especially at this time where reproductive rights as we’ve seen are under assault across this country,” she said.

Healey cited comments by Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential candidate, suggesting that he is in favor of national restrictions on contraception.

“I think all we have to do is look at his track record as president to know what he will do if he’s elected again,” Healey said.

Trump said in a recent TV interview that he would leave contraception policy to the states but supports efforts to limit access. He later quickly backtracked on social media, saying he has “never and never will advocate imposing restrictions on birth control or other contraceptives.”

But Democrats see the issue of birth control and abortion access as a wedge that could help incumbent President Joe Biden win his reelection bid in November and possibly help them take over control of the U.S. House of Representatives.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer announced over the weekend that the Democratic-controlled chamber will be taking up the bill during Wednesday’s session.

“There’s no question in the American people’s minds that Republicans have brought our country to this point,” Schumer said in a statement.

“And as Donald Trump reminded us recently, he is ‘proudly the person responsible’ for the annihilation of Roe v. Wade and the grotesque reversal of women’s personal freedoms,” said Schumer.

Republicans and even many anti-abortion groups say they are neutral on birth control and argue there’s no access problem. GOP lawmakers have accused Democrats of using the issue for political gain.

The proposal set to be taken up by the Senate would prohibit the federal government and any state from administering or enforcing any law, rule or regulation to prohibit or restrict the sale or use of contraception.

It would also allow the U.S. Department of Justice, health care providers and individuals harmed by restrictions on contraception to go to court to enforce those rights.

While the measure could pass with Democrats holding a slim majority in the Senate, it faces an uncertain path in the GOP controlled House of Representatives.

Polls have consistently shown that there is broad bipartisan support for birth control. A 2023 Gallup poll looking at the values and beliefs of Americans found that 88% of them believed birth control was morally acceptable.

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By Christian M. Wade | Statehouse Reporter

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June 3, 2024
How to get rid of NYC rats without brutality? Birth control is one idea

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New York lawmakers are proposing rules to humanely drive down the population of rats and other rodents, eyeing contraception and a ban on glue traps as alternatives to poison or a slow, brutal death.

Politicians have long come up with creative ways to battle the rodents, but some lawmakers are now proposing city and statewide measures to do more.

In New York City, the idea to distribute rat contraceptives got fresh attention in city government Thursday following the death of an escaped zoo owl, known as Flaco, who was found dead with rat poison in his system.

City Council Member Shaun Abreu proposed a city ordinance Thursday that would establish a pilot program for controlling the millions of rats lurking in subway stations and empty lots by using birth control instead of lethal chemicals. Abreu, chair of the Committee on Sanitation and Solid Waste Management, said the contraceptives also are more ethical and humane than other methods.

The contraceptive, called ContraPest, is contained in salty, fatty pellets that are scattered in rat-infested areas as bait. It works by targeting ovarian function in female rats and disrupting sperm cell production in males, The New York Times reported.

New York exterminators currently kill rats using snap and glue traps, poisons that make them bleed internally, and carbon monoxide gas that can suffocate them in burrows. Some hobbyists have even trained their dogs to hunt them.

Rashad Edwards, a film and television actor who runs pest management company Scurry Inc. in New York City with his wife, said the best method he has found when dealing with rodents is carbon monoxide.

He tries to use the most humane method possible, and carbon monoxide euthanizes the rats slowly, putting them to sleep and killing them. Edwards avoids using rat poison whenever possible because it is dangerous and torturous to the rodents, he said.

Some lawmakers in Albany are considering a statewide ban on glue boards under a bill moving through the Legislature. The traps, usually made from a slab of cardboard or plastic coated in a sticky material, can also ensnare small animals that land on its surface.

Edwards opposes a ban on sticky traps, because he uses them on other pests, such as ants, to reduce overall pesticide use. When ants get into a house, he uses sticky traps to figure out where they’re most often passing by. It helps him narrow zones of pesticide use “so that you don’t go spray the entire place.”

“This is not a problem we can kill our way out of,” said Jakob Shaw, a special project manager for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. “It’s time to embrace these more common sense and humane methods.”

Two cities in California have passed bans on glue traps in recent years. On the federal level, a bill currently in committee would ban the traps nationwide.

“It ends a really inhumane practice of managing rat populations,” said Jabari Brisport, the New York state senator who represents part of Brooklyn and sponsored the bill proposing the new guidelines. “There are more effective and more humane ways to deal with rats.”

Every generation of New Yorkers has struggled to control rat populations. Mayor Eric Adams hired a “rat czar” last year tasked with battling the detested rodents. Last month, New York City reduced the amount of food served up to rats by mandating all businesses to put trash out in boxes.

While the war on rats has no end in sight, the exterminator Edwards said we can learn a lot from their resilience. The rodents, he said, can never be eradicated, only managed.

“They’re very smart, and they’re very wise,” he said. “It’s very inspiring but just — not in my house.”

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April 13, 2024
3/27: Prime Time with John Dickerson

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3/27: Prime Time with John Dickerson – CBS News

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Jeff Glor reports on the NTSB’s focus in the Baltimore bridge collapse investigation, an interview with the family of the Boeing whistleblower, and how misinformation about birth control is spreading online.

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March 27, 2024
Iowa AG is still working on audit that’s holding up contraception money for rape victims

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The Iowa attorney general’s office said it is still working on an audit of its victim services that has held up emergency contraception funding for victims of sexual assault despite having a completed draft in hand.

Attorney General Brenna Bird, a Republican, paused the funding while awaiting the results of the audit to decide whether to continue those payments. Her office said the audit, which Bird announced when she took office 14 months ago, is in its “final stages” and a report would be released soon.

The policy under her Democratic predecessor, Tom Miller, had been to partially cover the cost of contraception for sexual assault victims. In rare cases, the cost of abortion for sexual assault victims was also covered, Miller’s victim assistance division director, Sandi Tibbetts Murphy, told the Des Moines Register last year.

“As a part of her top-down, bottom-up audit of victim assistance, Attorney General Bird is carefully evaluating whether this is an appropriate use of public funds,” said Alyssa Brouillet, Bird’s communications director. “Until that review is complete, payment of these pending claims will be delayed.”

The current status of the audit was first reported by the Register, which filed an open records request in October. After five months, Bird’s office completed the records request but declined to release the document to the Register, citing a section of Iowa Code excluding preliminary documents from public records law.

Federal and state law requires medical examination costs for victims of sexual assault are covered to ensure forensic evidence is collected readily and properly. In Iowa, costs are covered by the attorney general office’s crime victim compensation program, which is funded by state and federal criminal fines and penalties.

Materials from Miller’s administration show the costs for victims’ prescriptions for oral contraceptives and the Plan-B morning-after pill, as well as for the prevention or treatment of sexually transmitted infections, were reimbursed at 75%.

Planned Parenthood Advocates of Iowa said in a statement that the audit is being used to justify the termination of payments.

“It’s absolutely deplorable that sexual assault survivors in Iowa have gone more than a year without state-covered emergency contraceptives — all because of politics,” said Mazie Stilwell, director of public affairs.

Bird campaigned to replace the 10-term Miller highlighting her opposition to abortion and her commitment to defending Iowa’s restrictive abortion law, which she will do again during oral arguments before the state Supreme Court in April. The law, currently on hold, would ban most abortions after about six weeks of pregnancy if it is upheld.

Bird’s office said the crime victim compensation fund is being used to cover costs of sexual assault examinations, as well as rape kits and STI tests.

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March 27, 2024
University of Central Florida students advocate for free emergency contraception on campus

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Courtesy of YDSA

UCF students organize for free and accessible emergency contraception on campus.

Access to abortion care in Florida and across the country remains precarious, and in some states, is no longer accessible at all. Students at the University of Central Florida, eyeing this issue with concern, are advocating for ways to help young people prevent unwanted pregnancy — and no, it’s not through the failed strategy of promoting abstinence only.

Student organizers at UCF, the state’s largest university by enrollment based in Orlando, have joined young adults on other college campuses in advocating for expanded access to emergency contraception — specifically, what’s known as the “morning after” pill. This can be taken up to five days after having unprotected sex to help prevent pregnancy, although it’s most effective when taken the morning after or within three days.

The effort to expand access to emergency contraception is being spearheaded by student members of the Young Democratic Socialists of America, the student arm of a national political organization that advocates for social and economic justice.

Reana Sinani, a recent graduate of UCF and co-chair of UCF’s YDSA chapter, told Orlando Weekly that the group began gathering digital petitions on-campus earlier this semester, with the ultimate goal of making Plan B free and accessible for all students.

“We got like, I want to say 600 signatures or something in three days, which was really, really cool,” said Sinani, 22, a psychology major.

The group organized tabling events, where they shared information about emergency contraception and offered free Plan B supplied by groups like Orlando’s Stand With Abortion Now and Emergency Contraception 4 Every Campus, a national project of the American Society for Emergency Contraception.

Then, in February, students reached a milestone.

After meeting with the university’s chief public health officer on two separate occasions to discuss the issue, UCF’s Student Health Services switched to a lower-cost supplier of levonorgestrel, the generic version of Plan B, moving the price from $20 down to $6 on the university’s main campus in late February.

Chief public health officer Dr. Michael Deichen, who also serves as associate vice president of UCF’s Student Health Services, declined an interview with Orlando Weekly, but confirmed the price drop in an emailed statement.

After YDSA met with the university’s chief public health officer on two separate occasions to discuss the issue, UCF Student Health Services lowered the price of generic Plan B.

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“Medications are sold at a reduced markup in keeping with ongoing efforts to provide affordable and quality care to students,” Deichen shared, somewhat downplaying the students’ involvement in the decision. “Among the items available is generic emergency contraception, now priced lower due to a new vendor’s reduced purchase cost.”

A spokesperson for the pharmacy emphasized that brand-name Plan B, the functional equivalent of the generic version, will remain priced at $40 through UCF’s pharmacy.

It’s only the generic version — available over the counter at the student pharmacy — that is now priced at $5.98.

Student organizers nonetheless celebrated the decision on social media (and confirmed they were aware it was the generic, not brand-name Plan B, that was now priced at a lower cost).

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Instagram

An Instagram post from UCF YDSA celebrates the university’s plan to reduce the cost of generic Plan B on-campus.

“This is only the start of our campaign as we will continue to look for venues to make Plan B FREE and ACCESSIBLE for all UCF students!” the group wrote in an Instagram post.

According to Sinani, the group had collected roughly 1,600 petitions in support of the initiative as of March. Most came from students, in addition to some staff and faculty.

The goal of their campaign, she added, isn’t just to reduce the cost of emergency contraception, but also to make it more accessible through additional pickup locations across campus.

Currently, emergency contraceptives are only available at the university’s pharmacy through Student Health Services. Not everyone knows where that is, said Sinani, unless they have another prescription to pick up.

But they’re considering ways to make it easier for people to access. One idea that’s picked up steam across the country is the installation of vending machines on college campuses that distribute emergency contraceptives and other personal or sexual health products.

According to Emergency Contraception 4 Every Campus, student activists have successfully advocated for the placement of these vending machines on roughly 60 campuses nationwide, including three in Florida.

The University of Florida, Florida Gulf Coast University and the University of South Florida all have vending machines that distribute contraceptives and other personal healthcare products on-campus, according to EC4EC.

So do universities in other states coast to coast, from New York to North Carolina, Ohio, Washington and California.

“Our campaign slogan is free and accessible Plan B for all students, and that’s truly like what we’re pushing for.”

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Kelly Cleland, executive director of the American Society for Emergency Contraception, told Orlando Weekly there’s no law that currently prohibits the sale of EC in vending machines in any state. “So that puts student leaders in a great position,” Cleland said.

Some of the benefits of these vending machines, she said, include product affordability, timely access and privacy — with no questions asked at the pharmacy counter, and the ability for a student to pick up the item when they need it, on their own terms.

The ideal placement for these machines, advocates say, is in centrally located buildings that are open for extended hours or, better, 24/7. They could also be placed in gender-neutral bathrooms, libraries (like at the University of South Florida in Tampa) or other easily accessible spaces.

“Unprotected sex doesn’t only happen during business hours!” Cleland pointed out. “And many students experience stigma or embarrassment about needing EC and may not want to have to answer questions about their purchase, so vending machines can provide that anonymity and privacy.”

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Courtesy of YDSA

UCF students organize for free and accessible emergency contraception on campus.

At the University of Central Florida, Sinani said most people they’ve talked to on the ground about making EC more accessible have been receptive to the idea — even students who self-identified as conservative or anti-abortion.

“I’ve gotten comments like, ‘Oh, this would decrease abortions, so I will sign it,’” said Sinani, who herself supports abortion access.

Organizing around abortion access was actually a launching pad for the EC initiative. Before kicking off their Plan B campaign, students with YDSA first began gathering petitions last year for a proposed abortion-rights ballot initiative, spearheaded by the political committee Floridians Protecting Freedom.

The proposed constitutional amendment, if approved by Florida voters, would guarantee a right to abortion up to roughly 24 weeks of pregnancy.

After gathering the necessary number of signatures, advocates are now waiting to see whether the initiative will get final Supreme Court approval for placement on the November ballot. Florida’s self-described “pro-choice” State Attorney General Ashley Moody has argued the language of their proposal is too vague and would “hoodwink” voters.

Since the U.S. Supreme Court effectively overturned the constitutional right to abortion in 2022, a number of states have become statewide abortion deserts, where abortion care is banned and completely inaccessible.

This is not true for Florida, which is — for now — the most accessible state for abortion care in the U.S. South, despite a 15-week limit on abortion that opponents have challenged in the courts. A six-week ban, approved by the state Legislature’s Republican majority in 2023, is currently on hold pending a state Supreme Court decision.

As Vox has reported, curtailing access to emergency contraception is still considered a “fringe” view, even among those opposed to abortion — although some anti-abortion activists have reportedly been laying the groundwork for such an initiative for decades.

One of the most memorable moments Orlando Weekly had in 2021 at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), held in Orlando that year, was a conversation about abortion with a young woman holding a sizable “Babies Lives Matter” flag.

The young woman, originally from Venezuela, and her boyfriend said they were anti-abortion, but agreed that access to birth control was important. (They were less decisive on whether birth control should be cost-free — because, yes, we did ask.)

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One advantage the “fringe” anti-abortion activists have is that many Americans don’t understand what EC is, and how it differs from procedures to terminate a pregnancy.

A 2023 poll by KFF found 93% of U.S. adults were aware of Plan B or “morning-after” pills, but only 62% were aware it was not the same as the abortion pill. Nearly three-quarters (73%) incorrectly believed that emergency contraception is capable of ending a pregnancy in its early stages.

Students at UCF, organizing around emergency contraception access, also encountered this misinformation or other misunderstandings about how EC works.

Sinani said their campaign has been an “informative” experience, and it’s been fulfilling to be able to offer informational resources to other young people. To her, accessibility is what’s most important.

College students aren’t the most financially stable, she said. They may be between jobs. Not everyone can afford to drop $40 on Plan B if they have unprotected sex or are assaulted. “Our campaign slogan is ‘free and accessible Plan B for all students,’ and that’s truly what we’re pushing for.”

Cleland, with the American Society for Emergency Contraception, stressed that EC isn’t just for people who are sexually active. There are a number of reasons that a person might seek it out, including cases of sexual assault and a lack of access to non-emergency contraception.

“Making EC accessible and affordable helps keep students achieve their goals and have autonomy over their bodies and futures,” she said.

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March 14, 2024
Subscription-based health care can deliver medications to your door — but its rise concerns some experts

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Need help losing weight or handling depression? How about a pill that lowers cholesterol and treats erectile dysfunction?

Online subscription services for care have grown far beyond their roots dealing mainly with hair loss, acne or birth control. Companies including Hims & Hers, Ro and Lemonaid Health now provide quick access to specialists and regular prescription deliveries for a growing list of health issues.

Hims recently launched a weight-loss program starting at $79 a month without insurance. Lemonaid began treating seasonal affective disorder last winter for $95 a month. Ro still provides birth control, but it also connects patients trying to have children with regular deliveries of ovulation tests or prenatal vitamins.

This Netflix-like approach promises help for two common difficulties in the U.S.: access to health care and prescription refills. But it also stirs concern about care quality.

“This isn’t medicine. This is selling drugs to consumers,” said Dr. Adriane Fugh-Berman, who studies pharmaceutical marketing at Georgetown.

The online providers say they screen their patients carefully and send customers elsewhere if they can’t help them. They also think they’ve tapped a care approach that patients crave.

“The growth we’ve seen on our platform is a testament to how people are looking to get the care they need,” Hims spokeswoman Khobi Brooklyn said.

The publicly traded Hims has topped 1.4 million subscribers this year. It expects to pull in at least $1.2 billion in annual sales by 2025.

That pales compared to the $300 billion-plus in annual revenue generated by health care giants like CVS Health. But Hims’ 2025 projection is more than eight times what the company brought in at the start of the decade.

Subscription-based health care has been around for years, particularly in primary care, where patients can pay monthly fees to gain better access to doctors. The e-commerce giant Amazon recently entered that niche with a subscription plan that gives some customers access to virtual and in-person care.

Online versions of subscription-based care started growing after the COVID-19 pandemic made Americans more comfortable with telemedicine. That has led to a surge of investor money flowing to companies providing this care, said Dr. Ateev Mehrotra, a Harvard researcher who studies consumer health care.

Many condition-specific plans offer patients regular visits with a health care provider and then recurring prescriptions for a monthly fee.

That simplicity can be attractive, Mehrotra noted.

“You can just get the care you need and move on with life just as you pay for Netflix or whatever,” he said.

Hims debuted weight loss earlier this month after starting a heart health program last summer that includes the combination pill treatments.

Its rival Ro added weight loss last year to a lineup that also includes treatment plans for eczema, excessive sweating and short eyelashes, among other issues.

Lemonaid offers treatment plans for insomnia and high blood pressure. It also touts cholesterol management for $223 a year without insurance. That includes provider visits, lab work and prescriptions for generic medicines.

These companies still push sexual health help, especially on social media. But broader growth remains a priority.

Hims says in a regulatory filing that it sees significant future opportunities in menopause, post-traumatic stress disorder and diabetes.

Ro CEO Zach Reitano noted in an interview earlier this year that his company’s obesity treatments are “upstream” to other chronic diseases. He said patients who want help losing weight also care about improving their overall health.

Reitano told The Associated Press he thought one of the health care system’s biggest problems was that “it is not built around what patients want.”

Subscriptions, whether for medicine or meal kits, offer predictable costs and may seem like good deals at first. But customer enthusiasm can fade, and companies may feel pressure to find new business, said Jason Goldberg, chief commerce strategy officer at Publicis Groupe.

The approach also comes with reputational baggage.

RobRoy Chalmers turned to Hims for help with erectile dysfunction. But the Seattle artist decided to cancel his subscription and cut costs after a few months.

He kept receiving bills after he thought he stopped the subscription. He said he emailed and called customer service. He didn’t get a response until he criticized Hims on social media.

“The amount of effort I needed to go through for them to make good was too much,” he said. “This is every subscription-based company in my mind.”

Fugh-Berman worries mainly about care quality. She noted that talk therapy can be as effective as prescriptions for some conditions.

“Mental health care should never just be about drugs,” she said.

She also noted that a diagnosis can change over time. Patients on regular medications must be monitored in case the drug causes problems like higher blood pressure.

Lemonaid Health does that, according to Dr. Matthew Walvick, the company’s top medical official. He said Lemonaid routinely follows up with patients to monitor for side effects and update their medical history.

Brooklyn said Hims’ program for mental health care includes psychiatry and talk therapy.

Representatives of both companies say they also encourage patients to get in-person help when needed.

Mehrotra worries more broadly. He noted that overall patient health may get overlooked when customers come to these companies with a specific condition or medicine in mind.

Someone visiting a primary care doctor for birth control may also get screened for depression, he noted.

“These companies are very solution-oriented,” Mehrotra said. “They’re not thinking about that comprehensive care.”

Walvick said Lemonaid collects an extensive patient medical history that delves into issues like smoking or drug use to offer “the best possible comprehensive care.”

Brooklyn said Hims & Hers provides access to safe care for many issues but shouldn’t replace a primary care doctor. She added that every part of the health care system should be focused on improving access.

“The traditional health care system in the U.S. has always been slow to adapt to our changing society’s needs,” she said.

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December 26, 2023
Grassroots college networks distribute emergency contraceptives on campus

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Limya Harvey and Cydney Mumford set up a folding table a few times a month on the University of Texas-San Antonio campus to give away kits containing emergency contraceptives, condoms, and lube, or menstrual products like tampons and pads. They typically bring 50 of each type of kit, and after just an hour or two everything is gone.

The 19-year-old sophomores — Harvey is enrolled at UTSA and Mumford at Northeast Lakeview College — founded the organization Black Book Sex Ed last spring. Their mission is to educate students and others in need about sexual health and connect them with free services and products packaged into kits they distribute on campus, in the community, and through their website.

“Both of us grew up rather lower-income,” Mumford said, “so there’s a soft spot as it relates to people who say, ‘Oh, I just don’t have it right now.’ That’s part of the reason we started doing this.”

San Antonio college students Limya Harvey (left) and Cydney Mumford (right) distribute free kits containing either emergency contraceptives, condoms, and lube, or menstrual products, at the University of Texas-San Antonio campus and at community events.

Kathleen Royster

Harvey and Mumford aren’t alone. A growing number of students on college campuses nationwide are stepping in to provide other students with free or low-cost emergency contraceptives, birth control, and menstrual products.

They are also pushing back against threats to their reproductive freedom since the U.S. Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision last year, which eliminated federal abortion protections.

Although emergency contraceptives are legal in every state, some policymakers worry that in states that ban or severely restrict abortion, access to emergency contraceptives and other types of birth control may erode because of people failing to distinguish between drugs that prevent pregnancy and medications used for abortions.

“Our requests for help have quadrupled since Dobbs,” said Kelly Cleland, the executive director of the American Society for Emergency Contraception, which provides toolkits and technical assistance to help students develop what are becoming known as peer-to-peer distribution networks. Those student networks provide emergency contraceptives and bring vending machines to their campuses that carry the medications and other personal health care products. The organization has worked with students at more than 200 campuses.

Many types of emergency contraceptive pills are available over the counter and without age restrictions. Students who distribute them are generally not putting themselves at legal risk, especially if they ensure the products are in their original packaging and haven’t expired and refrain from providing medical advice, Cleland said. It’s like giving a friend a Tylenol, one advocate explained.

“It’s really growing and a really interesting new route for people to get what they need in trusted ways, especially in Texas and other states where there are repercussions from the Dobbs decision,” said Mara Gandal-Powers, director of birth control access at the National Women’s Law Center.

Like those of many student groups, Harvey and Mumford’s kits contain products — emergency contraceptive pills, tampons, lube, etc. — donated by nonprofits and companies. Black Book Sex Ed accepts financial donations as well and uses the money to buy items at big-box stores.

The University of Texas-San Antonio didn’t respond to requests for comment.

Across the country, at Bowie State University in Maryland, a graduate student took a different approach to improving student access to contraceptives.

What started as a class project last year for Jakeya Johnson’s master’s degree program in public administration and policy, eventually became state law.

Starting next year, the measure will require many Maryland public colleges to provide round-the-clock access to emergency contraception and develop a comprehensive plan to ensure students have access to all FDA-approved forms of birth control, plus abortion services.

As part of her project, Johnson, 28, started researching the availability of reproductive health care at Bowie State, and she quickly learned that options were somewhat limited. When she called the health center, she was told that emergency contraception was available only to students who went through counseling first and that, while the college prescribed birth control, there was no pharmacy on campus where students could fill their prescriptions. She proposed that the school install a vending machine stocked with emergency contraceptives, condoms, pregnancy tests, and other sexual health products. But college officials told her they didn’t have money for the machines. Her research showed that students at other colleges in Maryland faced similar roadblocks.

So, Johnson approached state Delegate Ariana Kelly, now a state senator, about introducing a bill that would require schools to provide access to emergency contraceptives and other contraceptive services.

The bill, which was signed in May, requires the schools to provide the services by August 2024.

“There was definitely some pushback” from conservative legislators during the process, Johnson said. Although the final bill didn’t include requirements for transportation services or school reporting that Johnson wanted, she was heartened by the amount of support the bill received from parents and students.

In the spring, Johnson received a public service fellowship from the University System of Maryland that has enabled her to work with her student health center to develop a blueprint for Bowie State that other schools can follow, she said.

“It’s something that in 2023 we shouldn’t have to be fighting for,” she said.” We should already have it.”

“The legislation was confirmation and affirmation of the direction we were headed anyway,” said Michele Richardson, director of the Henry Wise Wellness Center at Bowie State. She noted that the school is in the process of bringing to campus wellness vending machines, which will be installed by August.

But increasing access is more challenging elsewhere.

At Loyola University Chicago, a Jesuit college, members of the organization Students for Reproductive Justice aren’t permitted to host events on campus or reserve space in meeting rooms. The Loyola for Life group, which opposes abortion, faces no such restrictions.

While Loyola “welcomes an open exchange of ideas,” only registered student organizations that are “congruent with our values as a Jesuit, Catholic institution” can submit activity requests or reserve space on campus, said Matthew McDermott, a spokesperson for the university.

Oral contraceptives are provided only to students who need them for reasons unrelated to preventing pregnancy, and resident advisers are not permitted to distribute condoms or other forms of birth control.

“That’s where Students for Reproductive Justice comes in,” said Andi Beaudouin, 21, who for the past two years has overseen the group’s distribution of free emergency contraception. “We were like, ‘If the university isn’t going to do it then we will.’ Everyone deserves this and we don’t need to feel embarrassed or hesitant about getting the resources that we need.”

Beaudouin and other volunteers take orders for emergency contraception by email. They package pills with two pregnancy tests and some pads and liners in case of bleeding and hand off the kits to students either on campus or nearby. In the past two years, they’ve filled orders for more than 100 kits.

When the Supreme Court ruled in Dobbs, the number of requests skyrocketed, Beaudouin said. The group posted on Instagram pleading with students not to stockpile pills, because its supplies were very limited.

“People understood, but I felt really bad about it,” they said. (Beaudouin uses the pronoun they.)

Beaudouin doesn’t think university officials know that the reproductive health group distributes emergency contraceptives on campus. And Loyola for Life has picketed their off-campus condom distribution events, but it has gotten better since the reproductive health group asked them to stop, Beaudouin said.

Loyola for Life didn’t respond to a request for comment.

The national anti-abortion group Students for Life of America wouldn’t object to students distributing free pregnancy tests and menstrual products, said Kate Maloney, manager of the group’s Campaign for Abortion Free Cities. But they would object to distribution of emergency contraception, which they claim is an abortion-causing drug.

Still, the reproductive justice groups shouldn’t be prohibited from operating on campus, Maloney said. “We’re not going to say whether a group should be denied the right to exist,” she said, “because that has happened a lot to us.”

KFF Health News, formerly known as Kaiser Health News (KHN), is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF — the independent source for health policy research, polling, and journalism.

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December 4, 2023
Can Birth Control Cause Strokes? What Studies Show
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Ask any female young millennial or older Gen Z about birth control, and there’s a good chance that they were put on it at a young age. Many were put on it for reasons other than preventing pregnancy like to help with acne or to regulate periods.

It’s incredible that it’s become so accessible and gives people more autonomy over their bodies and reproductive choices, and has revolutionized the lives of people with uteruses.

Unfortunately, birth control can also come with quite a few side effects. More and more people have become aware of the repercussions that can come with the long-term (and sometimes short-term) use of birth control.

There are more common side effects like weight gain, loss of libido, sore breasts, and spotting in between periods, but some side effects are less obvious. Like the issue of covering up symptoms of a reproductive health disorder instead of getting to the root of it, or the toll that it can take on your liver.

Another serious complication that may be associated with birth control use is an increased risk of stroke. Does birth control really cause strokes? What steps can you take to have autonomy over your reproductive rights without the risk of a scary complication like a stroke?

What is A Stroke?

A stroke is when a blood vessel in the brain bursts, or when something blocks the blood supply to part of the brain. Brain cells start to die within minutes of being deprived of oxygen, causing parts of the brain to become damaged or die. Strokes can lead to long-term disability or brain damage, and can be fatal in some cases.

There are three different types of strokes:

Hemorrhagic stroke: Occurs when an artery in the brain ruptures or leaks blood, putting pressure on brain cells and damaging them.

Ischemic stroke: The most common type of stroke, this is when blood clots or another particle block blood vessels to the brain.

Transient ischemic attack (TIA): Or a “mini-stroke”, is when blood flow to the brain is blocked for a short period of time, typically 5 minutes or less.

Symptoms of a stroke include:

Confusion

Trouble speaking or understanding speech

Difficulty seeing in one or both eyes

Numbness or weakness in the arm, leg, or face

Severe headache without a known cause

Dizziness or difficulty with balance

Difficulty walking

All this information can sound scary, and new, especially for younger people who you normally wouldn’t think of being at risk of having a stroke.

Birth Control and Strokes

So can birth control really cause strokes? Potentially. One study showed people taking oral contraception have a stroke risk of 8.5 per 100,000 versus 4.4 per 100,000 for menstruating people not on hormonal birth control.

Before examining the relationship between strokes and birth control, it’s important to understand what different types of birth control are available. Hormonal birth control uses artificial hormones to suppress ovulation and prevent conception. Progestin-only pills are sometimes called “mini pills” and typically cause fewer side effects, however, they may not be as effective. Combination pills use both estrogen and progestin and tend to be more effective, although some people are more sensitive to estrogen.

Older studies spanning from 1960-1999 showed an increased risk of stroke of 2.75% among people who were on estrogen birth control. The same studies showed no increased risk of stroke for people taking progestin-only pills.

Later studies spanning from 1980 to 2002 showed a lower risk of a 2.12% increase of stroke for people taking combination hormonal birth control. A more recent study from 1995-2009 examined the risk of stroke among people taking birth control containing estrogen including vaginal rings and contraceptive patches. This study found no significant increased risk of stroke.

Other Risk Factors

The risk of having a stroke while on hormonal birth control is significantly higher for people who have other risk factors like smoking, high blood pressure, and who are on higher doses of estrogen. Although overall the risk is low, if birth control does contribute to a stroke it is typically an ischemic stroke.

Another risk factor that can significantly increase someone’s risk of having a stroke is migraines. People who have migraines with auras have a higher risk of having strokes than people who don’t get auras. However, people on combination hormonal birth control who get migraines, with or without aura, have an even higher risk.

Strokes and Birth Control: What to Remember

Although there is some correlation between taking hormonal birth control and strokes, overall the risk is low and seems to be declining over time. Part of this may be due to people smoking less which is also a significant risk factor for strokes.

Hormonal birth control offers people more autonomy and choice over their reproductive rights, but it does come with potential risks and side effects. If you’re unsure about what the right choice is for you, be sure to talk to your healthcare provider about your birth control options.

If you or someone you know is experiencing possible symptoms of a stroke, it’s vital to call emergency medical support immediately. It’s also important to note the time when symptoms first appeared as this can help medical providers determine treatment. Long-term outcomes for people who have had a stroke are dependent on how fast they are able to get medical care.
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Natasha Weiss

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October 31, 2023
Tennessee attorney general sues federal government over abortion rule blocking funding

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NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Tennessee’s top legal chief says the federal government is wrongly withholding millions of dollars in family planning funds after the state refused to comply with federal rules requiring clinics to provide abortion referrals due to its current ban on the procedure.

Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti filed a complaint in U.S. District Court in Knoxville earlier this week seeking to overturn the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services decision.

“We are suing to stop the federal government from playing politics with the health of Tennessee women,” Skrmetti said in a statement. “Our lawsuit is necessary to ensure that Tennessee can continue its 50-year track record of successfully providing these public health services to its neediest populations.”

An HHS spokesperson said the department does not comment on pending litigation.

Earlier this year, Tennessee was disqualified from receiving millions of federal dollars offered through a family planning program known as Title X. Tennessee has been a recipient of the program since it launched in 1970, recently collecting around $7.1 million annually to help nearly 100 clinics provide birth control and basic health care services mainly to low-income women, many of them from minority communities.

However, the program has also become entangled with the increasingly heated fight over abortion access. In 2021, the Biden administration reversed a ban on abortion referrals by clinics that accept Title X funds. The restriction was initially enacted during the Donald Trump administration in 2019, but the department has swung back and forth on the issue for years.

Under the latest rule, clinics cannot use federal family planning money to pay for abortions, but they must offer information about abortion at the patient’s request.

Then, last year, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, allowing many Republican-led states like Tennessee to impose abortion bans. The lawsuit filed on Tuesday alleges that HHS never informed officials how its 2021 rule would apply in states with abortion restrictions.

In March, HHS informed Tennessee health officials that the state was out of Title X compliance because of its policy barring clinics from providing information on pregnancy termination options that weren’t legal in the state — effectively prohibiting any discussions on elective abortions. The state defended its policy and refused to back down, causing the federal government to declare in a March 20 letter that continuing Tennessee’s Title X money was “not in the best interest of the government.” The state later appealed the decision and that appeal is ongoing.

Meanwhile, in September, HHS announced that Tennessee’s Title X funds would largely be directly funded to Planned Parenthood, the leading provider of abortions in the United States, which would distribute the money to its clinics located in Tennessee.

At the time, Republican Gov. Bill Lee called the move “wrong on many levels” and accused the federal government of withholding federal money from families in order to support a “radical political organization.”

Skrmetti’s office is asking a federal judge to reinstate Tennessee’s Title X money and to rule that HHS can’t withhold funds based on a state’s abortion ban, arguing that the federal appeals process over the issues has stalled. The state also is seeking “clarity” on whether it needs to use state funds to backfill the federal portion.

Tennessee has increasingly called for rejecting federal funding rather than comply with requirements over LGBTQ+ rights, abortion access and other hot-button issues. Already this year, the Volunteer State has rebuffed federal funding for a program designed to prevent and treat HIV after initially attempting to block Planned Parenthood from participating in the program.

Now, GOP lawmakers are talking about cutting off nearly $1.8 billion in federal education dollars — much of it targeted to serve low-income students, English learners and students with disabilities. Advocates argue that Tennessee has enough revenue to cover the federal funding portion and doing so would give the state more flexibility and not be restricted by regulations on LGBTQ+ rights, race and other issues.

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October 25, 2023
California governor vetoes bill to make free condoms available for high school students, citing cost

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SACRAMENTO, Calif. — California Gov. Gavin Newsom rejected a bill on Sunday that would have made free condoms available all public high school students, arguing it was too expensive for a state with a budget deficit of more than $30 billion.

California had about 1.9 million high school students enrolled in more than 4,000 schools last year, according to the California Department of Education.

“This bill would create an unfunded mandate to public schools that should be considered in the annual budget process,” Newsom wrote in a message explaining why he vetoed the bill, known as Senate bill 541.

The bill is one of hundreds passed by California’s Democratic-dominated state Legislature before lawmakers adjourned last month. Newsom has been signing and vetoing legislation since then, including rejecting bills on Saturday to ban caste-based discrimination, limit the price of insulin and decriminalize possession and use of some hallucinogens.

The bill would have required all public schools that have grades nine through 12 to make condoms available for free to all students. It would have required public schools with grades seven through 12 to allow condoms to be made available as part of educational or public health programs.

And it would have made it illegal for retailers to refuse to sell condoms to youth.

State Sen. Caroline Menjivar, a Democrat from Los Angeles and the author of the bill, had argued the bill would have helped “youth who decide to become sexually active to protect themselves and their partners from (sexually transmitted infections), while also removing barriers that potentially shame them and lead to unsafe sex.”

Newsom said programs increasing access to condoms are “important to supporting improved adolescent sexual health.” But he said this bill was one of several measures lawmakers passed this year that, when added together, would add $19 billion in costs to the state budget.

“With our state facing continuing economic risk and revenue uncertainty, it is important to remain disciplined when considering bills with significant fiscal implications, such as this measure,” Newsom said.

Also on Sunday, Newsom signed a law aimed a electrifying the state’s fleet of school buses. Starting in 2035, the law will require any new bus purchased or contracted by school districts to be zero-emission.

California’s public school districts that provide their own transportation own about 15,800 school buses, of which 10,800 are powered by diesel fuel, according to a 2022 report from the Legislative Analyst’s Office.

The law is part of California’s plan to phase out the use of fossil fuels. State regulations will ban the sale of new gas-powered cars in California by 2035.

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October 8, 2023
Gates Foundation commits $200 million to pay for medical supplies and contraception

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NEW YORK — The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation pledged $200 million to help save the lives of mothers and children during child birth, as the largest American philanthropic donor throws its weight behind the issue during the nonprofit’s annual Goalkeepers conference on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly.

Melinda French Gates, who says the issue is personal to her, smiled broadly as she introduced herself not just as the co-founder and co-chair of the foundation but as “Nona,” or grandmother, gesturing to her oldest daughter, Jennifer, who was seated in the audience in New York on Wednesday.

The foundation pledged $100 million each to health products manufacturer Unitaid, and UNFPA, the U.N. agency for reproductive health, to fund access to health care and contraceptive supplies and information in low- and middle-income countries. The Gates Foundation has been a major supporter of Unitaid, donating $50 million in each 2012 and 2017, according to the foundation’s grant database.

Founded in 2017, the Goalkeepers initiative is how the foundation tracks progress toward the Sustainable Development Goals, which U.N. member countries agreed in 2015 to meet by 2030. The goals set lofty targets to reduce poverty, improve health and education and protect the environment, though progress toward achieving them has fallen significantly off track, especially following the pandemic and the war in Ukraine.

In an effort to reach an audience outside of government officials, experts and policy circles, the foundation hosted an award ceremony in New York Tuesday evening and recruited social media influencers to cover it, said Blessing Omakwu, who leads the Goalkeepers initiative.

“My goal is they go back and take these things that we said in a very policy way and make it accessible to their followings and say, ‘Look, this matters. You should care about maternal health,’” she said.

French Gates recognized former President Jimmy Carter and former First Lady Rosalynn Carter with a lifetime achievement award, pointing in part Carter’s long commitment to the elimination of guinea worm disease. Singer Bono also received a special award for his work advocating over many years for access to health care in developing countries and for the role he played in launching the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, or PEPFAR.

The program to combat HIV/AIDS was created by President George W. Bush and the U.S. Congress two decades ago and is credited with saving 25 million lives. The fate of the program, set to expire at the end of September, is uncertain because of a demand from Republican lawmakers to bar nongovernmental organizations that used any funding from providing or promoting abortion services.

Bill Gates was absent from the award ceremony Tuesday because he had been invited to attend an event with President Joe Biden, French Gates said on stage. The two announced their divorce in 2021 but committed to continuing to work together at the foundation.

Speaking of the future of PEPFAR on Wednesday, Bill Gates said the idea the program would not continue is quite scary, given that it continues to provide life saving medications for millions of people around the world.

“It’s a shame that, at least temporarily, this is caught up in sort of a, ‘Does the U.S. reach out to the world and help the world?’ — some of those controversies. I think we will overcome that because the U.S. has a lot to be proud on this one,” Gates said.

Gates also made the case for a suite of interventions to prevent the deaths of children in the year after they are born, which he said was one of the first priorities of the foundation. He spoke with emotion about a visit he made to a South African clinic, where doctors asked the mother of a child who had died that day if she would allow them to try to determine more specifically the cause of the baby’s death as a part of a larger study. Cumulatively, the results of that study, which the foundation funded, has advanced knowledge about the causes of infant mortality.

The foundation also recognized the leaders of projects they said exemplified the aims of the development goals, including Eden Tadesse from Ethiopia, who designed a platform to provide job opportunities to refugees, and Aidan Reilly, Ben Collier, and James Kanoff, who started a project that delivers vegetables and produce that otherwise would be thrown out to food banks in the U.S.

Award winner Ashu Martha Agbornyenty, a midwife from Cameroon, called the foundation’s recognition of her work a victory for those who study to become midwives and for the health of women in her country.

“Everyone around me was like, ‘There’s nothing for midwifery. Midwifery is just a layman’s profession. There’s no future for midwifery.’ But me being here in New York today, it’s victory,” she said standing on a red carpet.

The Gates Foundation was not alone in announcing new commitments to support progress toward the development goals. On Tuesday, the IKEA Foundation pledged $20 million to help workers and communities who may lose jobs in the transition to renewal energy sources in Vietnam, South Africa and Indonesia. The Rockefeller Foundation announced last week that it will focus 75% of its resources over five years on what it calls climate solutions in energy, health, agriculture and finance, committing $1 billion in granted funds. And the Clinton Global Initiative announced that gender equity would now be a pillar of its work.

Last year, the Gates Foundation put the spotlight on hunger and promoted its support for crops engineered to adapt to climate change and resist agricultural pests, which have been criticized by farming groups and researchers who say that conflicts with worldwide efforts to protect the environment.

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Associated Press coverage of philanthropy and nonprofits receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content. For all of AP’s philanthropy coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/philanthropy.

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September 20, 2023
Thousands of Tydemy birth control pills recalled, may be ineffective, FDA warns

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Thousands of Tydemy brand birth control pills have been recalled, the Food and Drug Administration warned Tuesday, after testing by drugmaker Lupin Pharmaceuticals found that two lots they made of the tablets might have lower effectiveness.

Recalled batches of the Tydemy pills — a combination prescription contraceptive of estrogen and progestin — are of two specific lot numbers listed on the FDA’s website.

The FDA says the products were distributed nationwide to pharmacies and supermarkets from June 2022 through May 2023.

A total of 4,179 boxes have been recalled, according to the FDA’s database, which amounts to about 350,000 tablets that might be less effective at stopping pregnancy.

People who are currently taking recalled lots of the drugs are urged to continue taking their pills but immediately seek out an alternative from their doctor.

“Lupin advises patients to continue taking their medication. Patients should immediately contact their health care provider for advice regarding an alternative contraceptive method,”the FDA said in its warning.

The agency added that Lupin has voluntarily recalled the affected lots at the wholesale level.

Why the pills might be less effective

Drugmakers routinely do what’s called “stability” testing to ensure that medications they produce are still good to use out to their expiration dates.

Lupin Pharmaceuticals says that batches of Tydemy fell short after 12 months, with too low levels of an inactive ingredient called ascorbic acid used in making the tablets, as well as too high of “a known impurity.”

“Lupin is recalling these two batches because if there were a significant reduction in the amount of inactive content (ascorbic acid), this could potentially impact the effectiveness of the product which could potentially result in unexpected pregnancy,” the company said.

So far, Lupin says they have received “no reports of adverse events related to either recalled batches” from the current recall of birth control pills.

The FDA says it encourages doctors or patients who had an issue with the tablets to report it to the agency online or by fax.

It is unclear what led to the so-called “out of specification” issue, or if more batches might be affected. A spokesperson for Lupin Pharmaceuticals did not respond to a request for comment.

The recall is not the first for the drugmaker, which claims to be the “third-largest pharmaceutical company in the U.S. by prescriptions.”

Late last year, Lupin recalled batches of blood pressure medication Quinapril after finding impurities. An inspection of a facility run by the company in March turned up a range of shortcomings, including failing to run down the root causes behind several “out of specification” test results.

“Deviation investigations are not thoroughly investigated by your firms and appropriate actions are not taken to prevent recurrence,” the FDA’s inspectors wrote in that case.

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Alexander Tin

CBS News reporter covering public health and the pandemic.

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August 2, 2023

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