maternal health

A report by the Center for Healthcare Quality and Payment Reform found that over half of rural U.S. hospitals don't offer labor and delivery services. In Iowa, 62% don't have the services as of July 2024.

Monday morning, Iowa's 6-week abortion ban went into effect, changing the Midwest reproductive health landscape

The Iowa Department of Health and Human Services has four contracts with crisis pregnancy centers under the More Options For Maternal Support program.

The Iowa Legislature adjourned this past weekend, the eighth session in a row with Republican control.

On this legislative episode of River to River, we look at some of the bills regarding reproductive health that have advanced at the Iowa Capitol.

Republicans in the Iowa House of Representatives passed a bill Thursday that would raise criminal penalties for nonconsensually causing "the death of an unborn person.” Democrats said they fear it would jeopardize IVF access in Iowa.

Iowa has among the fewest number of OB-GYN specialists per capita of any state in the country, according to 2022 data from the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology.

The report by the Center for Healthcare Quality and Payment Reform analyzed federal data and found 61 percent of rural Iowa hospitals no longer deliver babies.

At a time when many rural hospitals continue to make the tough choice to shutter their obstetrics units and stop delivering babies, some have found ways to make their units survive and, sometimes, even thrive.

Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds’ proposal to extend Medicaid pregnancy coverage from 60 days postpartum to a year after giving birth passed in the Senate Monday. Her bill would also lower the program’s income limit so fewer pregnant Iowans and infants would qualify for Medicaid, keeping government costs from significantly increasing.