January 14, 2025
(The Guardian) – Trend away from hormonal contraception corresponds to rise in abortion rates, say researchers Women in England and Wales are increasingly ditching the pill in favour of fertility-tracking apps, raising the risk of a rise in unplanned pregnancies, … Read More
January 14, 2025
(Wall Street Journal) – A new report from the Congressional Budget Office lowers expected immigration, fertility and population growth The Congressional Budget Office forecast sharply lower population growth in the U.S. over the next three decades than it projected one … Read More
January 13, 2025
(Politico) – Medical students at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston are developing artificial intelligence tools to help them learn how to provide all-options pregnancy counseling without putting themselves or their patients at risk of prosecution under the … Read More
January 7, 2025
(New York Times) – Pharmacists have begun prescribing abortion pills, not simply dispensing the medication — a development intended to broaden abortion access by taking advantage of rules that give them prescribing ability in most states. The new effort is … Read More
January 7, 2025
(Longreads) – In this deeply thoughtful essay, Kristina Kasparian explores the complicated emotional landscape she’s navigated in choosing to have a child by surrogate pregnancy. With an egg donated by a third party and carried by a surrogate, Kasparian considers … Read More
January 6, 2025
(The Sydney Morning Herald) – Artificial intelligence is being used in Australian fertility clinics to help choose which embryos should be transferred into patients, with the potential to be dehumanising for parents and babies, researchers say. Allowing machine learning to … Read More
January 6, 2025
(ProPublica) – The report was published weeks after a ProPublica investigation found that the chemical causes more cancer than any other toxic air pollutant and can trigger asthma, miscarriages and fertility problems. A long-awaited report from the Environmental Protection Agency … Read More
January 3, 2025
(Slate) – It was supposed to make my pregnancy journey easier. Instead, it became an emotional and medical battleground. One in five American women experiences infertility. As many as 52 percent of them suffer from depression because of it. Not only … Read More
December 30, 2024
(Washington Post via MSN) – Statewide, according to the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services, at least 18 babies have been abandoned this year. The latest occurred just before Christmas at a Whataburger in San Antonio. A decade ago, … Read More
December 26, 2024
(Wall Street Journal) – Medical authorities are reclassifying life-saving procedures to make a political statement. The intent when managing PPROM is to balance the needs of mother and baby, and the best-case scenario is to preserve both their lives. The … Read More
December 24, 2024
(Wall Street Journal) – A two-tier system that has long made workers leave offspring behind in villages is cutting into birthrates Even as China’s leaders have looked for ways to lift sagging birthrates, Beijing thought there was one group who … Read More
December 24, 2024
(Daily Mail) – A retired NHS scientist has sensationally revealed that IVF pioneer Patrick Steptoe, whose work led to the world’s first test tube baby, used sperm from ‘lots’ of medical staff without keeping records of the children they fathered. … Read More
December 24, 2024
(Reason) – A company called Gameto claims to have successfully matured eggs outside of the female body, a development that could revolutionize the in vitro fertilization (IVF) process. “We are thrilled to announce a medical milestone–the world’s first live birth … Read More
December 23, 2024
(NBC News) – Health care sharing ministries advertise reimbursements for members’ medical bills. But they are largely unregulated, and most have restrictions on maternity coverage. One service ministries commonly restrict is maternity care, for which many require a waiting period … Read More
December 19, 2024
(NPR) – There were more abortion plotlines on TV this year – 66 across 63 shows, compared to 49 last year, according to the annual Abortion Onscreen report released Wednesday by Advancing New Standards in Reproductive Health, a research program … Read More
December 17, 2024
(Wall Street Journal) – Concerns grow about so-called endocrine disrupters, found in everything from plastic packaging to toys and cosmetics Fertility rates around the world are declining, including in the U.S., where the total fertility rate last year fell to … Read More
December 16, 2024
(KFF Health News) – Hawley’s local Indian Health Service hospital wasn’t equipped to deliver babies. But she said staff there agreed that the agency would pay for her care at a privately owned hospital more than an hour away. That … Read More
December 16, 2024
(ProPublica) – U.S. service members have long faced strict limits on abortions, even when used to resolve miscarriages. Under federal law, the military will only pay for abortions in cases of rape, incest or to save the mother’s life. In … Read More
December 12, 2024
(Wall Street Journal) – Employees worry the pullback and other new restrictions mean the entertainment giant is losing the identity that fueled its success Netflix made headlines nearly a decade ago when it unveiled one of corporate America’s most generous … Read More
December 11, 2024
(Medpage Today) – Independent experts found unacceptable safety risk The British government on Wednesday indefinitely banned puberty blockers for children with gender dysphoria after independent experts found there was an unacceptable safety risk in prescribing the medication. The decision, which … Read More
December 11, 2024
(Wired) – “People don’t always realize they are creating a human being and not a piece of furniture.” For years now, aspiring parents have been designing their children. Screening embryos for disease-causing genes during IVF, selecting their future baby’s sex, … Read More
December 10, 2024
(Wall Street Journal) – This Lunar year, the year of the dragon, is seen as an auspicious one for marriage and births in Chinese culture. Nonetheless, 2024 births are expected to drop below 8 million, less than half the number … Read More
December 9, 2024
(CNBC) – A federal judge approved a landmark class action settlement this week between Aetna and same-sex couples in New York who alleged the insurance behemoth had discriminated against them and other LGBTQ customers seeking fertility treatment. Aetna, a subsidiary … Read More
December 6, 2024
(MIT Technology Review) – The UK is seen as a global leader in regulating reproductive technologies. Some worry that onerous paperwork is causing embryos to be wasted. IVF is a success story for embryo research. But today, valuable embryos that … Read More
December 5, 2024
HEC Forum (vol. 36, no. 3, 2024) is available online by subscription only. Articles include: