Sen. Harris Targets ‘Implicit Bias’ To Improve Maternal Health, Especially For Black Women
“A large part of it is the biases that exist in the medical health professions that lead to these women not being taken seriously,” says Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.). “Frankly, there are a lot of biases that exist .… It’s a truth, uncomfortable as it may be.” In other women's health news, the Palm Springs Desert Sun reports on access issues with pharmacist-prescribed birth control.
Los Angeles Times:
Maternal Mortality Rates In The U.S. Have Risen Steadily. Sen. Kamala Harris Has A Plan To Change That
Sen. Kamala Harris says she wants to force the medical community to address an uncomfortable reality: Black women in the United States are three to four times more likely than white women to die immediately before or after child birth. The California Democrat plans to introduce a bill Wednesday to provide $30 million in annual grants to train against racial bias and to incentivize healthcare professionals to address the disparity in maternal health outcomes. (Haberkorn, 8/22)
Palm Springs Desert Sun:
Here's How California Provides Access To Birth Control Without A Doctor
A California law gives women access to birth control without a doctor’s prescription by allowing pharmacists to prescribe instead. But there’s a catch: not all pharmacies offer this service. And those that do must abide by a guideline. Access to contraceptives covers self-administered methods, which include: birth control pills, the patch, the ring and the depo shot. According to a report by the CDC, which looked at data from 1982 to 2010, the birth control pill was the most popular method of contraception with 81.9% of women preferring it over other self-administered methods. (Estevez, 8/21)