Crawling up that hill
Today…
is Rural Health Day (#PowerofRural), a topic I’m increasingly fixated on. 80% of rural areas are considered “medically underserved.” Rural doctors are older, and it’s expected their numbers will decline by 23% over the next decade. People. It’s a problem.
is the Great American Smokeout. I’m coming up on 14 years quit. Easy for me to remember – count back nine months from the 13yo’s birthday.
is the birthday of Gladys Lounsbury Hobby (1910-1993), a microbiologist whose research led to huge advances in the field of antibiotics. “Her work took penicillin from a laboratory experiment to a mass-produced drug during World War II.” And she did it in pearls.
A friend once described our little Bomboniera here as trade journal, catering to a relatively small audience with specific interests. I think that’s right, and I absolutely adore every last GD one of you. That said. Growth is slow and I want more.
Abortion
AP | Catholics divided as bishops examine Biden's abortion stance | David Crary
Catholics split almost evenly in supporting Trump or Biden in the presidential election. Now they’re sharply divided over a declaration by the head of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops that the president-elect's support for abortion rights presents the church with a “difficult and complex situation.”
A quick aside on the curse of the comms flack. Because message training, for years I had a Pavlovian response to the phrase “free birth control,” it is not free you pay for it your premiums you pay for it with your labor not free. (Later training fully turned this on its head, but that’s a story for another day.) Now I do the same thing with articles like 🠱🠱🠱 a majority of Catholic voters support safe and legal abortion and believe it can be a morally acceptable decision. I won’t, but trust me, I could go on.
Ms. | The Fight for Reproductive Health Care Is a Fight for Human Rights | Kelley Dennings
Until we start treating health care as a human right, we’ll continue to struggle to achieve equality and reproductive freedom.
The Real News | Anti-Abortion protesters get special treatment from the police | Molly M. Shah
Minneapolis, Louisville, Kenosha, Portland—these cities, among others, have all seen police respond with violence to protests for racial justice this year. However, anti-abortion protesters almost never elicit a police response, even with their long history of violence at clinics.
Massachusetts
AP | Massachusetts Senate OKs abortion rights amendment to budget
It would let a woman get an abortion after 24 weeks if the fetus would likely die after birth, and it would let 16-year-olds get abortions without their parents' permission.
WCVB-TV | Mass. Senate approves abortion access amendment for state budget | Chris Lisinski
WWLP-TV | Mass. Senate approves expanded abortion access 33-7
Mississippi
Mic | It just got easier to harass abortion patients in Mississippi | Ray Levy-Uyeda
On Tuesday night, the city council in Jackson, Mississippi, voted to repeal an ordinance that protected people entering the clinic from harassment and unwanted advances from anti-choice activists.
AP | City repeals noise rule on only Mississippi abortion clinic | Emily Wagster Pettus
LGBTQ
Washington Blade | LGBTQ hopefuls await appointments amid Biden transition | Chris Johnson
LGBTQ hopefuls shut out from the U.S. government for four years are eager to reemerge amid high hopes for change when President-elect Joe Biden takes office. The process of finding those appointees is underway.
Florida
South Florida Sun Sentinel | Transgender cashier claims torment by Publix co-workers put her in hospital | Ron Hurtibise
A former Publix cashier who identifies as a woman says co-workers tormented her with anti-gay and anti-trangender slurs until she suffered a nervous breakdown and had to be hospitalized. It’s the latest in a series of accusations against the grocery giant by LGBTQ employees.
New York Daily News | Trans woman suffered nervous breakdown, was hospitalized after being repeatedly taunted by co-workers at Miami Publix: lawsuit | Muri Assunção
Virginia
The American Independent | Virginia AG: No, you don't have the 'freedom' to discriminate against gay couples | Casey Quinlan
Virginia AG Mark Herring on Tuesday pushed back against a lawsuit that aims to undermine the state's nondiscrimination protections for LGBTQ people.
Pregnancy & Parenting
Becker's Hospital Review | US maternal care, mortality rate lagging behind other developed countries, report finds | Erica Carbajal
In 2018, the U.S. saw 17 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births — a ratio more than double the rate of other high-income countries, according to a Nov. 18 report from the Commonwealth Fund.
HealthDay | U.S. Leads Wealthy Nations in Pregnancy-Related Deaths | Amy Norton
STAT | The shameful abundance of birth- and pregnancy-related deaths in the U.S. | Laurie Zephyrin, Roosa Tikkanen
Boston Globe | In the Zoom era, dads not doing enough at home have nowhere left to hide | Kara Baskin
Online, my friend could see that her colleagues “clearly aren’t asking their spouses to pick up any slack.” The marital house of cards is now on screen for all to observe - and judge.
Working Mother | I Stopped Worrying About Negative Parenting Feedback and Learned to Mom Like a Dad | Audrey Goodson Kingo
Michigan Health Lab | Suicidal Risk During Pregnancy, After Childbirth on the Rise | Beata Mostafavi
Study finds prevalence of suicidal thoughts and self-harm among childbearing women nearly tripled over a decade, with an estimated 24,000 individuals at potential suicide risk.
MedPage Today | Pregnancy-Related Suicidality On the Rise, Often Going Undetected
The 19th | Study finds spike in suicidal thoughts, self-harm during and after pregnancy | Shefali Luthra
Vox | Why restaurants are open and schools are shut in many cities | Anna North
Policymakers may be trading short-term economic damage for longer-term devastation, as an entire generation of working parents – the majority of them mothers – is forced to choose between getting a paycheck and caring for kids.
Alabama
AL.com | Nearly 70% of Alabama’s maternal deaths could have been prevented | Anna Claire Vollers
Nearly 70% of pregnancy-related deaths of Alabama women were preventable in 2016, according to the state’s first report on maternal mortality since officials began collecting data last year. The report also recommended that Alabama expand Medicaid, calling a failure to do so “an underlying, yet significant factor” impacting the maternal deaths covered in the report.
Illinois
Chicago Tribune | New moms on Medicaid are 5 times more likely to die from pregnancy-related causes, but coverage runs out 60 days after childbirth. Illinois officials hope to change that. | Alison Bowen
In Illinois, Medicaid covers women for only 60 days after birth. Health and policy advocates say this leaves women without coverage at a time experts recently recommended adding more care.
Reproductive Health & Justice
Essence | A Historic Day For Black Women, A Historic Day For The American Medical Association | Aletha Maybank
The AMA and its house of delegates overwhelmingly voted for the first time to adopt policies that name and act on racism as a public health threat.
Forbes | Women Are More Likely To Suffer Sleepless Nights In US & Europe, Study Finds | Alice Broster
Women are more likely to suffer from insomnia and take sleeping medication.
Refinery29 | 19 Million Women Live In A Contraceptive Desert. Are You One Of Them? | Molly Longman
Nationwide, more than 19 million women who are eligible for publicly funded contraceptives live in contraceptive deserts, according to Power to Decide. Having access to multiple forms of birth control is crucial, not just for convenience, but for well-being.
VICE | ICE Keeps Trying to Deport Women in the Gynecological Surgery Scandal | Carter Sherman
Immigration and Customs Enforcement has again tried to deport two women linked to an investigation into allegations of medical abuse at a Georgia ICE facility, days after members of Congress asked the agency to stop doing that.
Period Poverty
The Oracle (Florida) | Student Government plans free menstrual product access on campus for spring | Jorgelina Manna-Rea
The Stokes News (North Carolina) South student organizes drive to college feminine hygine products
Colorado
The Colorado Sun | As HIV infection rates rise in Colorado, pharmacies can now prescribe preventative pills | Jennifer Brown
Colorado this month became one of the first states in the nation to let pharmacists prescribe HIV prevention drugs, part of a public health effort to curb rising infection rates nearly a decade after breakthroughs in medicine that can stop HIV’s spread.
Texas
Texas Tribune | Texas education board approves new sex ed policy that does not cover LGBTQ students or consent | Aliyya Swaby
Starting in 2022, 7th and 8th grade students in Texas will learn about forms of birth control beyond abstinence, but middle schoolers still won't have to learn about the importance of consent or the definitions of gender identity and sexual orientation.
Dallas Morning News | Teaching of birth control beyond abstinence gets preliminary approval from Texas education board | Alex Briseno
Houston Chronicle | State Board of Education OKs new sex ed curriculum excluding LGBTQ youth, consent | Cayla Harris
Work & Money
CNN | The US social safety net has been ripped to shreds – and women are paying the price | Jessica Calarco
The pandemic presents challenges for all adults, but the new reality has exposed the inequalities that place an outsized burden on women – in Covid-19 times and in normal times.
CNBC | For families of color, the pandemic brings an outsized financial hit | Michelle Fox
The economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic is hitting families of color particularly hard.
The Daily Beast | When Fed-Up Women Joined Forces to Beat Back the Patriarchy | Melissa Leon
The battle to end the gender pay gap and sexual harassment on the job still toils on. But the feminist movement of the 1970s organized resistance against male bosses who regarded the women around them at work as “office wives” and not fellow professionals. Female office workers took to the streets and brought their message to employers, legislatures, and pop culture.
Forbes | How Can We Wave Goodbye To The Gender Pay Gap For Good? | Jonquil Hackenberg
The fifth Sustainable Development Goal (SDG), gender equality, isn’t one of the most overlooked. In fact, gender equality is one of the only SDGs that most companies have actually considered, and put steps in place to achieve. The problem? The steps that almost every business has taken are nowhere near enough.
Marketing Dive | Gender diversity in ad industry improves, while ethnic inclusion stalls | Robert Williams
Major advertisers have added more women to high-ranking marketing jobs, but ethnic diversity hasn't improved in the past few years, according to a new survey by the Association of National Advertisers.
Ms. | What Women Can Expect from a Biden Presidency: on Economic Security | Carrie Baker
President-Elect Biden’s platform for women promises to be the most ambitious presidential agenda yet addressing issues that affect women and girls in the U.S. and around the globe.
The Motley Fool (U.S.) | Big Changes May Be Coming for Women in the Workforce Under a Biden Presidency | Maurie Backman
More, More, More
CNN | White women who oppose Trump still have work to do | Fatima Goss Graves, Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner
How could a majority of White women support President Donald Trump? That's what many organizers and activists found themselves asking after early exit polls suggesting Trump expanded, though by a small amount, his overall support among White women in this election.
HuffPost | COVID-19's Economic Impact Is Forcing Some Victims Of Violence To Return To Their Abusers | Alanna Vagianos
The economic crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic has created untenable situations for Black and brown survivors of sexual assault and domestic violence, making it more likely for them to return to abusers so they can stay afloat.
Utah
Daily Utah Chronicle | We Can’t Honor Women from Utah’s Past Without Hard Conversations About the Present | Elise Scott