Studies on autistic adults have found that women mask their autism more than men do, which could explain why they often fly under the radar. The cause may relate to sexist social expectations for women and discrimination from patriarchal medical systems.
Tag: Women’s Health
Women everywhere deserve accessible, affordable and comprehensive healthcare. This includes reproductive healthcare like contraception, abortion, sex and relationship education, STI prevention and treatment, cancer screenings and counseling. However, lawmakers have long attempted to restrict or reduce this care in ways that harm women.
Reproductive Justice for AAPI Women: The Ms. Q&A With Dr. Sophia Yen
The pandemic brought a surge of barriers for people seeking access to reproductive care and abortion, especially among women who identify as Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI)—from increased disease severity and mortality rates, to xenophobia and acts of violence.
For Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, Ms. spoke with Dr. Sophia Yen about the disparities that different racial groups face when it comes to medical treatment in reproductive health and how AAPI women and their allies can advocate for themselves and their communities.
Abortion Bans Endanger Women’s Lives, New Study Shows
Criminalizing abortion makes pregnancy more dangerous and renders doctors impotent to treat pregnant women fully and appropriately.
Pregnancy has long been one of the more dangerous things a woman can do. It is not convenient for abortion opponents, but the truth is that pregnancies go wrong, and sometimes they threaten women’s lives and our health. Even when everything goes right, pregnancies are tremendously stressful events on the body; they leave their mark, and they cause permanent changes (and often permanent injuries). It is unreasonable and unconscionable for the state to force this on women.
Over-the-Counter Naloxone: A Solution to the Climbing Death Rate from Opioid Overdoses Among Women
On March 29th, 2023, the Food and Drug Administration announced that NARCAN, a life-saving nasal spray that can reverse opioid overdoses, will now be sold over the counter in places like convenience stores, pharmacies, and gas stations.
This is a game-changer for the millions of Americans affected by the opioid epidemic, an increasing percentage of whom identify as women—disproportionately including Black women, pregnant women, and new mothers.
The Patriarchs’ War on Women
Assaults on women’s and LGBTQ+ rights—and attempts to put women “in their place”—constitute a backlash against feminist progress expanding women’s full inclusion in public life.
As women’s participation becomes more prominent in domestic and international politics, here’s why political sexism and gender policing are also becoming more virulent—and what to do about it.
(This essay is part of Women’s Rights and Backsliding Democracies project—a multimedia project made up of essays, video and podcast programming, presented by Ms., NYU Law’s Birnbaum Women’s Leadership Network and Rewire News Group.)
As an Obstetrician, I Need Mifepristone to Stay Legal—And Not Just for Abortions
As an obstetrician and gynecologist providing abortion care in the Midwest, I’m fervently hoping mifepristone will remain available—not only for my patients seeking to end a pregnancy, but also for those who have miscarried.
Skip the Flowers: This Mother’s Day, Help Save Women Who Suffer During Childbirth
Every year, nearly 300,000 women die because of pregnancy and childbirth—and 95 percent of those deaths are preventable. The biggest health disparity between rich and poor is reflected in how likely a woman is to die while bringing new life into this world.
For every woman who dies, another 20 to 30 suffer from preventable and treatable injuries like obstetric fistula—a childbirth injury that causes urinary and/or fecal incontinence and destroys a woman’s life. Obstetric fistula is just a symptom of a larger problem: the global under-investment in maternal healthcare.
Our Crisis in Maternal Healthcare Is Uniquely American
Maternal healthcare in the U.S. is largely not accessible, equitable, affordable or person-centered. When maternal health suffers, so does newborn health and future child health.
For this Mother’s Day, policymakers, administrators, medical practitioners and healthcare providers need to demonstrate to mothers in the U.S. that they are a priority and advocate for legislation that promotes comprehensive maternal healthcare.
Over-the-Counter Birth Control Is Within Reach
A panel of advisors to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) unanimously voted on Wednesday to recommend the FDA approve the first over-the-counter birth control pill in the United States: Opill, a progestin-only birth control pill. The advisory panel decided the pros of making the pill available over the counter—including a significant increase in birth control access, especially for young women—outweigh any of the cons. Once approved, Opill would be available without an age restriction.
‘They Decriminalized Abortion, But They Still Judge Us’: The Mexican Fight for Reproductive Justice
In the case of abortion, which the supreme court decriminalized in September 2021, allowing women access to abortion up until 12 weeks gestation, women are still struggling to gain proper access to legal abortion for free at public hospitals because doctors are unaware of the law or find excuses to delay the procedure.
Human rights defender and lawyer Ariadne Song has defended women’s rights cases for 19 years, including the ‘aborto legal’ campaign first started by the Green Wave, or Marea Verde, in Argentina.