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Today a woman in her 30s faces higher odds of a cancer diagnosis than her grandmother did at her age two generations ago. Cancer incidence and mortality are rising in millennials and even younger populations, according to American Cancer Society (ACS) data, while rates among older Americans are declining. (Karen E. Knudsen and Othman Laraki, 8/12)

At a time when fewer people carry cash — let alone loose coins — free access to menstrual products eliminates these absurdities, normalizes a bodily function that has been treated as dirty or shameful, and allows children, whatever their gender identity, to tend to a fundamental health need on their own terms. As panicky Republicans concoct insults and false accusations to puncture the rapid rise of the Harris-Walz ticket, they remain out of step with most Americans on menstrual equity. (Renee Graham, 8/11)

In its upcoming term, the Supreme Court will once again hear a case that involves a highly contentious question that lies at the heart of personal liberty: Who should decide what medical care a person receives? Should it be patients and their families, supported by doctors and other clinicians, using guidelines developed by the leading experts in the field based on the most current scientific knowledge and treatment practice? Or does the Constitution permit lawmakers to place themselves, and courts, in the middle of some of the most complex and intimate decisions people will make in their lives? (Lydia Polgreen, 8/13)

This week, Missouri Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft is expected to certify Missourians for Constitutional Freedom’s proposed amendment to the Missouri Constitution. If approved by voters in November, this would enshrine a “right to reproductive freedom” in the Missouri Constitution. As a high school social studies teacher in St. Louis, this raises fascinating issues of law and policy that are as relevant to my advanced placement U.S. government and politics students, as they are to Missourians generally. It is important to appreciate the historical context for the initiative. (Robert P. Barnidge Jr., 8/13)

There are few things more exciting for researchers than to mount and complete a clinical trial that could change the practice of medicine and save lives. That’s what we experienced when The New England Journal of Medicine published our findings in January 2023 that aspirin was as effective at preventing life-threatening blood clots after surgery as was a far more expensive and more painful injectable blood thinner. (Deborah M. Stein and Robert V. O'Toole, 8/13)