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Health—


Trump administration lays out plan to tackle pregnancy-related deaths

 
The Trump administration outlined a wide-ranging agenda to tackle the nation’s pregnancy-related death crisis at a Thursday morning briefing. It’s unclear how much weight those recommendations will carry, but if enacted, they could help undercut the devastating number of pregnancy-related deaths.
  • About 700 women die each year because of pregnancy-related complications — a category that spans the first year postpartum — and Black and Native women are two to three times more likely to die than White, Latina and Asian American women. 
  • The majority of those deaths are preventable, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And the United States ranks well below other wealthy nations when it comes to addressing pregnancy-related mortality.
The Department of Health and Human Services’ “future action plan” calls for: 
  • The pregnancy-related death rate to be cut in half over the next five years.
  • The rate of low-risk caesarean sections to drop by a quarter.
  • An effort to address high blood pressure in women who could become pregnant. Chronic high blood pressure has been linked to poor outcomes in pregnancy, and affects about one-fifth of Black women who are of reproductive age.
The plan also emphasizes structural changes that could alleviate challenges people face postpartum — including endorsing a nationwide paid family leave program “so mothers can focus on their health” and encouraging people to seek treatment for postpartum depression.

It’s unclear what path the administration, which will leave office in January, could pursue to enact those goals. But addressing postpartum mental health could make a meaningful difference: Suicide is a major cause of preventable pregnancy-related deaths.

The HHS plan also calls for extending Medicaid coverage for pregnant people — which currently expires at 60 days postpartum — to last a year after birth for people who have a substance use disorder. But that would still leave out people who are vulnerable to postpartum depression but don’t also have addiction problems.

The House of Representatives unanimously passed a bill this fall to allow states, which run Medicaid programs, to extend Medicaid coverage for up to a year after birth. The bill has not been taken up in the Senate.

Read the full report here.
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Environment & Climate—


Young women are using Instagram to fight for the future of the planet


By Alexis Lanza
Photo courtesy of Marie Wilson

Zureyma Johnson’s introduction to climate change was in college. She studied kinesiology and neuroscience at Gordon College in Massachusetts, and some of her science professors were passionate about conserving the planet. 

But the reality of the issue hit closer to home after she graduated in 2017. Johnson began having health issues and visited three different doctors about her problems — hormonal imbalances, rapid mood changes, changes in weight. They all assured her these changes were normal; that sometimes this just happens. Skeptical, she kept looking for answers. 

Finally, she found a doctor who asked a simple question: Where have you lived? 

Midland, Texas, is an oil town with high levels of pollutants that increase cancer risk and expose citizens to harmful ozone smog. Johnson, now 25, lived there from ages 14 to 18, and often goes back to visit her sisters and parents. She says her doctor suggested the environment there could be related to her current health problems. 

Johnson began looking into the impact climate change can have on physical and mental health. Ground level ozone is known to increase emergency room visits for asthma. Exposure to toxic air pollutants can worsen allergic reactions. Smoke exposure from wildfires increases respiratory and cardiovascular hospitalizations. Contaminants, such as synthetic hormones and mercury, can be affected by a disrupted water cycle and build up in food at levels that can affect immune function and fetal development. 

“Everything’s related,” Johnson said. “Whenever we do horrendous things to the earth we’re also doing it to ourselves.” 

She also began doing more research on the zero-waste lifestyle, a movement that promotes reuse and recycling to avoid creating the trash that goes to landfills. This led her to Instagram. 

Read the full story here.
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What we’re reading—

Curated by Annelise McGough. Have something you think we should recommend? Tweet at us using #19thReads.
Louisville is clamoring for police reform. Can an interim chief deliver? Yvette Gentry won’t be in the job long, but her city is hoping for swift progress after a series of scandals and police shootings. (New York Times, December 2)
How Colorado got even libertarians to support paid family leave. Inside a yearslong persuasion campaign. (Slate, December 2)
Meet TIME’s first-ever kid of the year. She’s a 15-year-old scientist and inventor who uses technology to tackle issues ranging from contaminated drinking water to cyberbullying. (Time, December 3)
Deborah Gonzalez makes history as Georgia’s first Hispanic district attorney. Gonzalez won the runoff for a race she could only compete in after suing the governor. (NBC News, December 2)
A message from this week’s sponsor, Bumble

Bumble is an app built by women, for everyone. Join now to date, meet friends, and network with a community that fosters safe, healthy relationships.
What we’re streaming—
🎧 Listen: The Stay In. WNYC Arts and Culture Editor Jennifer Vanasco talks about what to do at home with kids as part of their ongoing series, “The Stay In.” (All Of It, December 1)
📺 Watch: The Lakota Daughters. Poverty, drugs, alcohol, frequent disappearances of young women and the absence of law enforcement are all issues plaguing the Pine Ridge Native American Reservation in South Dakota. But women there are trying to make the future better and brighter as they work to create “a girl society” that is aimed at helping girls aged 10 to 18. (Voice of America, December 2)     

Live with The 19th—

 

Join The 19th’s Errin Haines and Amanda Becker on Friday, Dec. 4, at 12 p.m. CT/1 p.m. ET for back-to-back conversations on the 2020 women’s electorate with Valerie Jarrett and Kellyanne Conway.
 

 
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