Insight
A major barrier for sexual and reproductive health? Cost. Innovation can help
By Ambreen Molitor, National Director of Product Innovation, Planned Parenthood Federation of America
According to the World Health Organization, one of the greatest barriers to accessing health care for many people in the United States is cost.
This includes sexual and reproductive health care, and as state abortion bans continue to proliferate across the country and force many people to travel long distances for care, the cost of this care is skyrocketing.
One in four women in the U.S. will have an abortion by age 45.
A study by the Guttmacher Institute that surveyed over 1000 abortion patients at 11 different providers in the U.S. found that 63 per cent of women who delayed their abortion care cited cost as the reason.
Too many people, especially people who already face barriers to getting care because of systemic discrimination, are forced to delay or go without the care or medication they need due to concerns about cost.
If we’re not making care more affordable, we’re not expanding access.
After the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, Planned Parenthood Federation of America’s innovation team jumped swiftly into action.
Our first step was to hear directly from people seeking abortion care to understand their emerging needs in real-time better and allow their firsthand experiences to guide our approach to creating digital solutions.
Through surveys and in-depth conversations with people from different backgrounds and regions across the U.S., we found that among the many increasingly complex obstacles people face when seeking abortion care, cost is almost always a primary concern.
It was clear that making abortion care affordable needed to be a top priority.
Planned Parenthood Federation of America partnered with Reprocare’s Piggybank platform, a software that allows patients in need of financial support to be matched with available abortion funds — anonymously and within minutes.
In a hugely successful three-month pilot, 115 Planned Parenthood health center patients matched with over $62K in abortion funds, and the automated process helped reduce the time spent on logistics by 45 per cent.
Piggybank is a simple solution that tackles efficiency and health inequity in reproductive care by helping ensure no abortion funds are left on the table, and most importantly, that people can get the care they need.
Investing in digital solutions reflects our belief that technology and innovation can and should be leveraged to expand access to sexual and reproductive health care and information — even, and perhaps especially, when public policy makes it harder for patients to get the care they need.
The fertility rate in England and Wales fell to a record low of 1.39 children per woman in 2025, down from 1.41 a year earlier.
New figures show that parts of London and cities with major universities accounted for many of the areas with the lowest local fertility rates.
The City of London recorded the lowest rate in 2025 at 0.37 children per woman, followed by Cambridge at 0.87 and the London boroughs of Islington and Westminster at 0.90.
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) defines the fertility rate as the average number of live children women would expect to have over their childbearing lives.
Brighton & Hove recorded a rate of 0.95, followed by Southwark at 0.97 and Norwich at 0.98.
Exeter, Oxford and York, along with the London boroughs of Camden and Hammersmith & Fulham, each recorded 1.01 children per woman.
At the other end of the table, Pendle in Lancashire and Luton in Bedfordshire had the highest rate at 1.93.
They were followed by Oldham in Greater Manchester at 1.87, Bradford in West Yorkshire at 1.84 and Barking & Dagenham in London at 1.83.
The overall fertility rate for England and Wales declined from 1.41 in 2024 to 1.39 in 2025.
A rate of around 2.1 is needed for a population to remain stable over time when the impact of migration is excluded.
Twelve of the 25 local authorities with the lowest fertility rates in 2025 were in London.
In Wales, Swansea recorded the lowest fertility rate at 1.18, while Carmarthenshire, the Isle of Anglesey and Newport each had the highest rate at 1.48.
There were 585,396 live births in England and Wales in 2025, down from 594,677 in 2024 and the lowest number since 1977.
Live births fell across every region in England. The West Midlands recorded the largest percentage decline at 3.1 per cent, while the North East had the smallest at 0.3 per cent.
The average age of parents also increased slightly.
Mothers had a provisional standardised mean age of 31.1 in 2025, compared with 31.0 in 2024. Fathers had an average age of 34.0, up from 33.9.
In 1975, the average age was 26.4 for mothers and 29.5 for fathers.
The proportion of births where the mother was born outside the UK also increased, from 20.8 per cent in 2005 to 27.5 per cent in 2015 and 34.6 per cent in 2025.
India was the most common country of birth for non-UK-born mothers in 2025 for the fourth consecutive year.
It was followed by Pakistan, Nigeria and Romania.
In 2025, 56.4 per cent of births were to parents who were both born in the UK, down from 62.7 per cent in 2015.
Women face a hidden burden navigating healthcare, with many repeatedly retelling their medical history, a national study suggests.
The findings indicate that Canadian women are taking on cognitive, emotional and administrative work alongside managing their health, including coordinating providers and advocating for care.
More than half of women surveyed, 53 per cent, reported a past or current chronic condition, while 64 per cent said there were health topics they struggled to raise with their doctor.
Sarah Hoffman, president and CEO of Pacific Blue Cross, said: “These findings challenge us to think differently about women’s healthcare and highlight the hidden work required to navigate the system.
“For many women, managing their health has also come to mean managing the healthcare system itself.
“They are acting as project managers of their own care, shouldering the invisible labour of coordinating between providers, retelling their medical history and advocating to be heard.
“The gap between men and women is meaningful and raises important questions about why younger women report lower levels of confidence and support.
“It also challenges us to consider whether we are actually making progress in women’s care, and whether the next generation is being equipped with the confidence and voice to advocate for their health.”
Overall, 71 per cent of Canadians described their doctors as supportive and 88 per cent expected their appointments to go well.
Among women living with chronic conditions, 71 per cent reported having to repeat their complete health history multiple times a year.
Younger women were particularly likely to report difficulties discussing their health. The study found 81 per cent of Gen Z women aged 18 to 30 and 73 per cent of Millennial women aged 31 to 45 had health topics they struggled to raise with their doctor.
Among Gen Z women with chronic illness, 92 per cent reported having to repeat their complete health history.
The study also found differences between young women and men. While 95 per cent of Gen Z men expected a doctor’s appointment to go well, the figure was 82 per cent among Gen Z women.
Similarly, 82 per cent of Gen Z men said they felt supported by their family doctor, compared with 66 per cent of Gen Z women.
Reasons for holding back health concerns varied between generations.
Among Gen Z women, 30 per cent cited fear of dismissal and 29 per cent fear of judgement.
Embarrassment was the most common barrier among Millennial, Gen X and Boomer women, reported by 29 per cent, 27 per cent and 35 per cent respectively.
Women who felt they needed to prove themselves to be taken seriously said they adapted how they approached appointments.
Strategies included researching medical information, repeatedly describing or justifying symptoms, bringing written notes or documentation, tracking symptom timelines, making repeat visits and emphasising how symptoms affected their daily lives.
The study also found an association between feeling supported by a doctor and expecting appointments to go well.
Canadians who described their physician as supportive were nearly four times more likely to expect appointments to go well than those who felt unsupported, at 98 per cent compared with 25 per cent.
Overall, 66 per cent of Canadians said they described their symptoms accurately. This fell to 48 per cent among those who said they felt unsupported by their doctor.
The 2026 Blue Cross Women’s Health Study surveyed 2,045 adult Canadians online in March 2026 through independent research company Research + Knowledge = Insights.
The survey had a reported margin of error of plus or minus 2 per cent, 19 times out of 20.
A French court has linked cosmic radiation to a former flight attendant’s breast cancer for the first time.
Sophie Lainault, 59, had sought to have her cancer recognised as an occupational disease linked to her working conditions.
The court in Bayonne ruled that cosmic radiation was one of three carcinogenic, or cancer-causing, hazards arising from her profession, alongside passive smoking and prolonged night work.
Smoking was authorised on Air France flights until 2000.
The ruling means Lainault, who is in remission, can take early retirement and have any further treatment fully reimbursed by the French health system.
Lawyers said the decision has also cleared the way for similar claims by recognising breast cancer as an occupational risk for flight crews.
Lainault said: “My dearest wish is that the decision encourages other women who up until now have not had the courage to take this step.”
Lainault worked as a stewardess and later a purser on Air France aircraft, recording 12,600 flight hours between 1989 and 2019. More than half of those hours were at night.
Many of her long-distance, high-altitude flights from Paris would have taken her near the North Pole, where exposure to cosmic radiation is most intense.
Cosmic radiation consists of particles originating from the sun and other stars.
A study this month at Harvard Medical School in the US involving more than 500 professions found that flight attendants and pilots had the highest proportions of radiation-related cancer deaths.
About 6.9 per cent of deaths among flight attendants and 6.7 per cent among pilots were from radiation-related cancers, according to the analysis.
The proportions were higher than in other professions, including nuclear technologists, who are routinely exposed to radiation from non-cosmic sources and ranked 12th in the analysis.
It has long been known that high-altitude air travel exposes people to cosmic radiation, although the dose received by most travellers is regarded as statistically insignificant. Exposure is higher at the poles because elsewhere the Earth’s magnetic field acts as a shield.
Lainault’s lawyer Elisabeth Leroux said: “In France the link between breast cancer and certain hazards has been established for a number of professions, such as nurses … but this is the first time for an air-hostess.”
Air France said it had not been involved in Lainault’s legal case and had not seen the reasoning behind the court’s decision.
“The health and security of our staff is an absolute imperative,” the airline said. “Every employee has a medical accompaniment that goes well beyond the regulatory minimum.”
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