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Innovations and challenges in global contraception and family planning

Contraception and family planning are vital aspects of sexual and reproductive health and rights. Despite major advances in modern contraception over the past 60 years, many gaps remain and the rate of unplanned pregnancies and abortions remains high.

31 Oct 2025

KFF Health News' 'What the Health?': Schrödinger’s government shutdown

Democrats and Republicans are both facing potential political consequences in their continuing standoff over federal government funding.

16 Oct 2025

KFF Health News' 'What the Health?': Public health further politicized under the threat of more firings

In a highly unusual White House news conference this week, President Donald Trump — without evidence — boldly blamed the painkiller Tylenol and a string of childhood vaccines for causing a recent rise in autism.

25 Sep 2025

Watch: Why is having a baby so expensive in the US?

New moms all over social media are breaking down their incredibly expensive hospital bills after giving birth.

12 Sep 2025

KFF Health News' 'What the Health?': Countdown to government shutdown

Oct. 1 is the start of the next fiscal year, and unless Congress reaches agreement on continued spending, big parts of the government could shut down that day.

11 Sep 2025

Review maps Toxoplasma hotspots: Half in Eastern Europe infected by age 44

Researchers systematically reviewed and modeled Toxoplasma gondii seroprevalence across 25 European countries. The study found striking regional differences, with highest infection levels in eastern and western Europe and lowest in the UK and northern regions.

1 Sep 2025

Blue states that sued kept most CDC grants, while red states feel brunt of Trump clawbacks

The Trump administration's cuts to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention funding for state and local health departments had vastly uneven effects depending on the political leanings of a state, according to a KFF Health News analysis.

26 Aug 2025

Planned parenthood bets on redistricting to push back against GOP funding cuts

Abortion rights groups are backing California Democrats in the escalating battle to redraw congressional maps, warning that Republicans are rigging seats on the heels of deeply unpopular cuts to safety net health programs and restrictions on reproductive care.

20 Aug 2025

Over-the-counter oral birth control pill improves access to contraception

Two years ago, the Food and Drug Administration approved the sale of an over-the-counter birth control pill for the first time in the United States without a prescription.

18 Aug 2025

Maryland taps Affordable Care Act fund to help pay for abortion care

Maryland is the first state to tap into an old fund connected to the Affordable Care Act to help solve a new problem: helping pay the expenses of patients who travel to Maryland for an abortion.

17 Aug 2025

KFF Health News' 'What the Health?': Kennedy cancels vaccine funding

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s announcement that the federal government will cancel nearly $500 million in mRNA research funding is unnerving not only for those who develop vaccines, but also for public health experts who see the technology behind the first covid-19 shots as the nation's best hope to combat a future pandemic.

7 Aug 2025

KFF Health News' 'What the Health?': Next on Kennedy’s list? Preventive care and vaccine harm

In his ongoing effort to reshape health policy, Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. reportedly plans to overhaul two more government entities: the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force and the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program.

31 Jul 2025

A brain-dead pregnant woman was kept alive in Georgia. It’s unclear if state law required it.

A Georgia woman declared brain-dead and kept on life support for more than three months because she was pregnant was removed from a ventilator in June and died, days after doctors delivered her 1-pound, 13-ounce baby by emergency cesarean section.

29 Jul 2025

KFF Health News' 'What the Health?': Here come the ACA premium hikes

Much of the hubbub in health care this year has been focused on Medicaid, which faces dramatically reduced federal funding as the result of the huge budget bill signed by President Donald Trump earlier this month.

24 Jul 2025

KFF Health News' 'What the Health?': The Senate saves PEPFAR funding — for now

The Senate has passed — and sent back to the House — a bill that would allow the Trump administration to claw back some $9 billion in previously approved funding for foreign aid and public broadcasting.

17 Jul 2025

Doulas, once a luxury, are increasingly covered by Medicaid — even in GOP states

As a postpartum doula, Dawn Oliver does her best work in the middle of the night.

10 Jul 2025

KFF Health News' 'What the Health?': Trump’s bill reaches the finish line

Early Thursday afternoon, the House approved a budget reconciliation bill that not only would make permanent many of President Donald Trump's 2017 tax cuts, but also impose deep cuts to Medicaid, the Affordable Care Act, and, indirectly, Medicare.

3 Jul 2025

To cut Medicaid, the GOP’s following a path often used to expand health care

President Donald Trump's "One Big Beautiful" budget reconciliation bill would make some of the most sweeping changes in health policy in years, largely affecting Medicaid and Affordable Care Act plans — with reverberations felt throughout the health care system.

2 Jul 2025

Feds investigate hospitals over religious exemptions from gender-affirming care

The Trump administration has launched investigations into health care organizations in an effort to allow providers to refuse care for transgender patients on religious or moral grounds.

1 Jul 2025

State abortion bans lead to longer waits and higher costs for care

People in states that have banned abortion were more than twice as likely to receive them later in pregnancy, according to a new study by researchers at UC San Francisco.

26 Jun 2025