Top in women's health: Regulation of crisis pregnancy centers; future family planning
Policymakers should implement increased regulation of nonprofit pregnancy centers, which may offer harmful or unsafe treatments or spread misinformation, according to researchers.
As of March, Texas, California and Florida have a combined total of over 350 crisis pregnancy centers, which are nonmedical centers that provide alternatives to abortion. Of the 1,600 fully indexed crisis pregnancy center webpages reviewed by the researchers, most offered ultrasonography, approximately half offered STI testing and 30.4% offered abortion pill reversal.
“While crisis pregnancy centers provide some community services, there is a clear need for greater regulation and transparency regarding the medical services they offer,” John W. Ayers, PhD, MA, vice chief of innovation in the division of infectious diseases and global public health at UC San Diego School of Medicine, told Healio. “The widespread promotion of unproven and potentially dangerous treatments, like abortion pill reversal, and the unregulated provision of services such as ultrasounds and STI testing, puts women’s health at risk.”
It was the top story in women’s health last week.
In another top story, women who are looking to have children after turning 30 years old may want to freeze their eggs to increase the likelihood of future pregnancy and promote better family planning outcomes, according to a reproductive endocrinologist and infertility specialist.
Read these and more top stories in women’s health below:
Crisis pregnancy center practices suggest ‘need for greater scrutiny’
Most nonprofit crisis pregnancy centers in the U.S. advertise medical services such as abortion education and sexually transmitted infection testing but also abortion pill reversal, an unproven and potentially harmful treatment, data show. Read more.
Can fertility wait? Expert weighs in on reproductive timelines, egg freezing initiation
Reproductive lifespans are limited and there is no current way to reverse ovarian aging, which is why earlier egg freezing is key to better future outcomes when family planning, according to a speaker at the Mount Sinai Women’s Health Forum. Read more.
Number, rates of legal abortions declined nationwide from 2013 to 2022
The number and rate of reported abortions decreased in the U.S. while abortion ratios increased from 2013 to 2022, according to surveillance data published in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. Read more.
Access to hospital-based obstetric care declining in rural, urban communities
Access to obstetric care at rural and urban short-term acute care hospitals across the U.S. steadily declined from 2010 to 2022, with the greatest impact seen among hospitals in rural counties, researchers reported in JAMA. Read more.
Q&A: Providing period products to homeless youths makes ‘a big difference’
In the greater Philadelphia area, the Menstrual Health Equity Initiative provides period products on a reliable basis for women and girls experiencing homelessness, so they can attend school and work without disruption. Healio spoke with Sarah Revak, MD, primary care pediatrician in the department of pediatrics at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, about how this initiative has benefitted women and girls. Read more.