HHS cuts risk undermining reproductive health services
The Department of Government Efficiency's mass layoffs at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) have reduced staff working at maternal health and reproductive health programs including teams that report on fertility outcomes of IVF clinics.
HHS laid off 10,000 employees earlier this month, which included removing three-quarters of the CDC's reproductive health division, a former employee told The Hill.
The CDC's six-person Assited Reproductive Technology Surveillance team is now gone as well as a 17-person team that worked on the Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System. The CDC no longer has a dedicated team studying contraception use.
Couples who are trying to conceive now do not have access to trustworthy federal information on IVF clinics and their chances of conceiving. And there are now fewer people monitoring pregnancy health outcomes or doing in-depth research on why some women and children die in childbirth.
Public health experts warn that cuts to these programs will have lasting effects on Americans and create a blind spot in women's health,making it more dangerous to be pregnant in the U.S.
The U.S. has one of the highest maternal mortality rates out of similarly wealthy nations, with 18.6 deaths per 100,000 live births, according to the CDC's most recent data.
'I think women and children in this country are going to be less healthy, going to die sooner, and I think it's going to take us longer to fully understand the ramifications of that,' said Sean Tipton, chief advocacy and policy officer at the American Society for Reproductive Medicine, which represents fertility medicine providers.
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