News Briefs: Midwifery Profiles and Practice For Consumers, Attorneys, Physicians and More. .
Cuts in Title X Funding
Physicians For Reproductive Health: Press Release – April 1, 2025
* Beginning April 1st, various communities are being stripped of $35 million dollars from the Trump Administration in the form of attacks on Title X, a well-known program that serves as an access point for basic preventative health care. These cuts will, initially, impact at least 20 States.
* According to Dr. Jamila Perritt, President & CEO of Physicians for Reproductive Health and OB/GYN:
Julia Koblitz
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Concurrent with the day the Trump Administration dismantled the CDC (Center For Disease Control) by laying off thousand of health care providers, researchers, and advocates. Critical safety net health care clinics are losing the funding that they need to operate and provide access to basic health care such as: Birth Control, STI testing and treatments, and cancer screenings. “ The health care that Title X clinics provide. . .are nothing short of lifesaving”.
The Trump Administration intends to eliminate systems and resources that impact “all of us”, especially those with the fewest resources. “Their desire to control who gets pregnant, who stays pregnant, who has the privilege of surviving their pregnancies, and who receives access to resources to raise families is violent and dangerous.”
https://prh.org/press-releases/trump-cuts-35-million-in-title-x-funding/
Physicians For Reproductive Health
National Cancer Institute
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Kelsey Rhodes:
krhodes@prh.org
What happens to health research when ‘women’ is a banned word?
* Research on women’s issues has always lagged behind those of male subjects and their health issues. One doctoral student’s research on uterine fibroids has been abruptly terminated. Her doctoral fellowship from Columbia University was, also brought to an abrupt halt. (Refer to Columbia’s cooperation with the new administration regarding elimination of DEI programs and initiatives.)
The United States has failed in promoting scientific inquiry that considers how sex and gender can influence health, not to mention a previous long history in America of focusing research on White men. It has only been 40+ years since the FDA discouraged researchers from including women who could become pregnant in clinical trials for medical products. This left it unclear whether U.S. therapeutics were even safe for them. It took until 1993, for clinical trials to include women and “individuals from disadvantaged backgrounds.”
Louis Reid
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For a few years following 1993, the federal government actually launched offices at the NIH, Dept. of Health and Human Services, and the FDA that focused on women’s health research. Since this time, consideration for gender in medical research has progressed, slightly. In the Fall of 2024, a report from the National Academies of Science Engineering and Medicine found that in the last 10 years, the amount of federal funding for women’s health had declined in comparison to the rest of the NIH’s budget.
Researchers struggled to understand the health implications of women’s conditions such as endometriosis, uterine fibroids, pregnancy, or gender gaps in mental health. It was noted that these health conditions were all areas where Black women, in particular, experience worse health outcomes and face lack of appropriate treatment. During this time, research money stalled for research on sex and gender and how the relationship with class and race may influence health outcomes.
Research involving LGBTQ+ health issues are being withdrawn as fast as it can be identified. In a recent address to Congress, Trump has praised efforts to cut funding and “appalling waste”, sarcastically referencing a program that spent “$8 million to make mice transgender”. Unfortunately, the President’s blatant lie, and intent to be clever, misrepresented the actual research which involved important studies involving asthma and breast cancer.
CDC
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Trump has returned to power following a renewed federal focus on women’s health research and gender equity. In 2023, President Biden announced the first-ever White House Initiative on Women’s Health Research to address previous, chronic under-funding. The former first lady, Jill Biden, led a conference at the White House highlighting one billion in funding toward women’s health research. The Trump Administration has since rescinded the counsel that oversaw the research initiative.
https://19thnews.org/2025/03/women-lgbtq-health-research-trump-funding/
By Shefali Luthra and Barbara Rodriguez Published March 27, 2025, 4:00 am MT
Trump administration suppresses pregnancy risk data
* Early in their efforts to reduce racial disparities in maternal deaths, officials in New Jersey accessed a decades-old data bank to find out why Black mothers were dying at higher rates than White mothers. This data set is collected through surveys given to new mothers. State governments compile these data which is maintained by the CDC. The data is available to the public and is available to government agencies, research groups, and nonprofits to identify populations at high risk for health issues. Targeted responses are provided. The Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System (PRAMS) data are important for measuring health outcomes and responses.
The first lady of New Jersey, Tammy Murphy, has said that the PRAMS data is crucial to measuring health outcomes in her State. But currently, Murphy and various other maternal health advocates are concerned regarding the future of the PRAMS database. Early this year, the CDC halted collection of PRAMS data, supposedly to conform to the myriad executive orders issued by Donald Trump.
Changes in how PRAMS data is collected come amid the unprecedented flurry of action by the Trump Administration, which has removed health information from federal websites considered not to align with the president’s politics. Trump plans to reduce funding for various maternal health programs, among many others, supported by Democrats. Family planning programs in at least six States have received notice that their federal funding will be reduced (per Politico).
In a March 12, 2025 letter to the CDC acting director, Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) and Representatives Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-12th) and LaMonica McIver (D-10th) joined 24 other colleagues to underscore the importance of PRAMS data collection, given our nation’s high rate of maternal deaths.
Anna Hecker
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PRAMS data is used to develop targeted strategies encouraging breastfeeding, early and consistent prenatal care, non-smoking, and safe sleep practices. It is understood that PRAMS provides the only consistently available data that provides information about pregnancy, breastfeeding after leaving the hospital, contraceptive use, partner abuse and other useful factors.
NJ Spotlight News: Lilo H. Stainton, Health Care Writer/ April 2, 2025 Health Care
Relevance For Practice
Situation:
Federal funding and support for women’s health care is being systematically withdrawn by the new administration at almost every level. Programs and federal protections related to the health and safety of women of all ages are in jeopardy. Draconian cost-cutting imposed on vital health programs will inevitably lead to their disappearance. This potential reality will place new burdens, not only on patients, but on those that are tasked with protecting patient health and safety.
Vulnerability:
Programs supportive of women’s health care are losing funding, threatening the lives and well-being of female teens, pregnant women, and seniors requiring support for their health maintenance and safety. For CNMs/CMs, the role in this new health environment may be more critical than ever. You must be particularly aware and vigilant regarding what is expected of you in this disturbing reality. You may encounter more patients who present with health problems that have not been previously addressed or carefully followed. Naturally, the threat of legal liability may be enhanced from previous interruptions in care, patients with higher acuity due to the elimination of supportive programs, and other failures from political dismantling of care safety nets.
Expectation/Duty:
The highest level of care will be expected of you, as always. Patient histories, follow-ups, and continuity of care may become challenging. Your patients may be sicker, needier, and you may not have a previous records infrastructure to support or guide your plans of care. Although never appropriate, any shortcuts taken can provoke undesired outcomes. New patients will probably present with serious gaps in care or a total absence of care. You may need to do more with less information. Again, the risk of bad outcomes will, likely, be enhanced, along with your risk of malpractice. Impecccable documentation is imperative. As long as there are intellectually inept and greedy politicians interfering with health care policy, research, implementation, and other life-saving aspects of health care, history has shown that bad things will happen and people will die unnecessarily. For providers of health care, careers are now in jeopardy, along with the health and well-being of patients that deserve better. Be mindful of your enhanced responsibilities and do your best in the times to come.
(Refer to : Nurse-Midwifery Care and Support of Patients With Fetal Loss . . .)
https://www.midwivesontrial.org