Category: News & Press

November 30, 2022 – Passing the “Momnibus” Act is the #1 Issue for Voters in Upcoming End-of-Year Package with Majority Support from Independents and Republicans Washington DC — New Navigator polling reveals 72 percent of voters support passing the “Momnibus” legislation to reduce preventable deaths in moms. America has the highest maternal mortality rate of any industrialized country […]

COVID-19 contributed to a quarter of all U.S. maternal deaths last year and in 2020, according to an oversight report. The report, released Wednesday morning by the U.S. Government Accountability Office, a nonpartisan government auditing agency, details maternal mortality disparities during the pandemic and how the coronavirus contributed to overall maternal deaths. Out of last […]

(10/11/2022) Today, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Xavier Becerra issued the following statement on the Biden-Harris Administration’s final rule to strengthen implementation of the Affordable Care Act by fixing the “family glitch,” a step that will help about 1 million Americans either gain coverage or see their coverage become more affordable. “Protecting and […]

This month, I am happy to spotlight the What to Expect Project (WTEP), a PMNCH member of the NGO constituency that is holding its 8th annual #BumpDay initiative on 20 July.  Every day, more than 800 women die from preventable causes related to pregnancy or childbirth worldwide, and there are currently vast disparities in care based on […]

28 June 2022, WASHINGTON – Secretary of the Air Force, Frank Kendall, presented Heidi and Erik Murkoff with the Zachary and Elizabeth Fisher Distinguished Civilian Humanitarian Award on June 23, for their longstanding support to military moms and dads stationed around the world. The ceremony honoring their contributions to the Armed Forces was held in […]

What to Expect, a platform of over 20 million moms, will author a blog series featuring doctors and other trusted experts answering questions about pediatric COVID-19 vaccines, and how moms, expecting moms, and all parents can get the information they need to get themselves and their children vaccinated; author new articles dispelling myths about the […]

Story at a glance
In early May, a leaked draft opinion stated the Supreme Court plans on overturning Roe v. Wade, which protected women’s right to have an abortion.
If overturned, it would be up to individual state governments to decide whether abortion is legal. At least 26 states are poised to outlaw it entirely if Roe is overturned.
A lack of access to abortion has a number of health consequences for women including increasing rates of maternal mortality as well as depression and anxiety.
Earlier this month, Politico published a leaked draft opinion stating the Supreme Court plans to vote to overturn Roe v. Wade, the groundbreaking 1973 decision that protected women’s right to choose to have an abortion.

In the draft opinion, Justice Samuel Alito wrote that “Roe was egregiously wrong from the start” and “we hold that Roe and Casey must be overruled.” A final decision from the Supreme Court is expected in June or July and if overturned, states would be allowed to decide whether to have legal abortion care — and it looks as if at least 26 states will likely ban abortion completely.

Since the opinion leaked, activists, educators and health experts across the country have warned about how a world without Roe will be catastrophic for women’s health, particularly for poor women of color.

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“Women and children will die,” said Carolyn West, associate dean of special initiatives at the University of Washington, Tacoma. “That’s the bottom line.”

Expect a higher maternal mortality rate

The United States has the highest maternal mortality rate of any country in the industrialized world. In 2020, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported 861 women died in childbirth and that number is going up. Some health care providers warn that with the overturning of Roe v. Wade, maternal mortality rates could go up in the country. Already some conservative lawmakers are pushing to try to enact legislation making it illegal to perform an abortion with no exceptions, even if the abortion would be done to save the life of the mother.

Expect it to become harder to treat miscarriages

Some miscarriages are treated the same ways as abortions. Although some women who miscarry do not need any medical intervention, others will need to take medication to ensure all the contents of the uterus are expelled while others will need to undergo a medical procedure called a dilation and curettage where a doctor inserts an instrument into the uterus to scrap blood and fetal remains.

In Texas, which already has very restrictive abortion laws, there are already threats to miscarriage treatment. A state law passed last year bans the use of several medications as abortion-inducing drugs but two of those medications, misoprostol and mifepristone, are used for treating early miscarriages.

“Overturning Roe v Wade certainly also opens the door to people who have a miscarriage being questioned about their pregnancy how come you know doctors being concerned about whether or not they can provide certain treatment,” Krishna Upadhya, vice president of quality care and health equity at Planned Parenthood Federation of America, told Changing America.

“Bans on abortions don’t make sense from a scientific and medical standpoint…when you overturn Roe versus Wade and allow bans to take place across the country, the potential harms are just really far reaching and devastating,” she added.

Expect mental health to become worse for some women

Making it more difficult or impossible to access abortion could harm the mental health of some women. Shortly after news broke that the Supreme Court would likely vote to overturn Roe v. Wade, the American Psychological Association released a statement expressing concern over the potential undoing of the decision. One study found that most women who receive an abortion do not regret the decision years later and that those denied an abortion actually suffer from worse mental health down the line than those who chose to terminate their pregnancy.

“Rigorous, long-term psychological research demonstrates clearly that people who are denied abortions are more likely to experience higher levels of anxiety, lower life satisfaction and lower self-esteem compared with those who are able to obtain abortions,” said APA President Frank C. Worrell. “In addition, there is no research to indicate that abortion is a cause for subsequent mental health diagnoses.”

Expect it to be more difficult for some women to leave abusive relationships

In his statement, Worrell also adds that there is a “strong relationship” between unwanted pregnancy and interpersonal violence with there being evidence to show that a lack of access to abortion increases the chances that women in abusive relationships will experience physical abuse from their partners. Between 6 to 22 percent of women seeking to terminate a pregnancy reported experiencing intimate partner violence, according to a 2014 study.

Women of color are more likely to suffer the most from lack of abortion access given that they experience intimate partner violence at higher rates than white women. Around 40 percent of Black women will experience intimate partner violence in their lifetime while 55 percent of Native women will experience physical intimate partner violence.

By Annie G. Toro, JD, MPH, President and Executive Director of the What to Expect Project

No matter where in the world they live, every expectant mom wants what’s best for their baby: a healthy beginning to a healthy, bright future.

Established in 1997 by its founder, Heidi Murkoff – author of What to Expect When You’re Expecting, the What to Expect Project (WTEP) is dedicated to informing, supporting, and empowering moms in need, in the United States and around the world, so they can expect healthier pregnancies, safer deliveries, healthier babies, and healthier futures.

WTEP harnesses the power and global reach of the What to Expect brand and mobilizes its community of more than 20 million moms to help bring about positive change, particularly on issues that impact moms and families most. We use the latest evidence-based strategies in the fields of health, education, and communication to train health care providers how to recognize if their patients do not understand health messages and to provide them tools and training to overcome these obstacles.

Tragically and wrongly, too many moms don’t receive the quality, comprehensive, respectful, responsive, supportive, empathetic, and nurturing care they need and deserve.

This July 20th, we will celebrate our 8th annual #BumpDay – a social media advocacy campaign that celebrates healthy pregnancies while raising urgently-needed awareness about maternal deaths and the need for better, more accessible maternal health care. Our goal: to ensure that every mom receives the care and support they need to deliver a healthy start in life and a healthy future for themselves and the baby they love. Last year, WTEP worked with members of Congress to pass a bipartisan resolution commemorating the ideals of #BumpDay and reaffirming the United States’ leadership to end preventable maternal deaths in the United States and across the globe.

From increasing access to doulas, midwives, and other essential health workers, to strengthening health systems’ capacity to prepare and respond to the COVID-19 pandemic and future public health emergencies, to reducing preventable maternal mortality and morbidly through working to deliver a continuum of care for all moms, from preconception through postpartum, WTEP works with policymakers and other stakeholders across the political spectrum at the local, state, national, and global level to remove barriers to essential maternal health care and services for our most at-risk moms.

It takes a village to raise a child. But first, that village must safely deliver a healthy baby…to a healthy mom.

To learn more, please visit: www.whattoexpectproject.org

About WTEP: The What to Expect Project (WTEP) is dedicated to informing, supporting, and empowering moms in need, in the United States and around the world, so they can expect healthier pregnancies, safer deliveries, healthier babies, and healthier futures. At WTEP, we focus on nurturing the nurturers.

We envision a world where all expecting moms receive the vital, empowering information and the responsive, respectful, culturally appropriate, community-specific care and support they need to plan and safely navigate pregnancy, postpartum and beyond.

“This week, we celebrate the work and contributions of doulas, and the critical role they play in delivering the respectful, responsive, comprehensive continuum of care every mom needs to deliver a healthy beginning and a healthier future for herself and the baby she loves. The What to Expect Project believes that doulas are the missing link in […]