Sep 17, 2019

Cokie Roberts dies at 75

Cokie Roberts. Photo: Marvin Joseph/The Washington Post/Getty Images

Award-winning journalist and political commentator Cokie Roberts has died at the age of 75, reports ABC News.

The big picture: Roberts was a pioneer for women in journalism. She shaped the earliest coverage at NPR in the 1970s, won numerous awards for her work at ABC and authored six bestsellers on women in America. In addition, she was named one of the 50 greatest women in broadcast journalism by the American Women in Radio and Television.

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Alexi McCammond

Joe Biden's campaign has a new strategy to win over female voters

Photo: Mario Tama/Getty Images

Joe Biden's presidential campaign is launching the "Women for Biden" group today in its latest effort to target specific voters ahead of the primaries next year.

Why it matters: Female voters and candidates helped Democrats win races at all levels across the country in the 2018 midterms. Biden's campaign is hoping to extend that trend into 2020 and highlight how he'd fight against "Trump's war on women," as the campaign put it.

Go deeperOct 7, 2019

Marisa Fernandez

Pregnant women often don't get key vaccines

65% of pregnant women in the U.S. said they were unvaccinated for influenza and whooping cough, according to a Vital Signs report released on Tuesday by the CDC.

Why it matters: Only 9% of women in the U.S. ages 15–44 become pregnant each year. But pregnant women accounted for at least 34% of influenza-related hospitalizations each season between 2010 and 2018.

Go deeperOct 9, 2019

Marisa Fernandez

Opioid crisis drives spike in Hepatitis C among pregnant women

Hepatitis C virus. Photo: BSIP/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

The rate of pregnant women with Hepatitis C was 5 times higher in 2015 than in 2000 due to the substantial level of opioid abuse in the U.S., according to the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report released Thursday.

The big picture: 68% of pregnant women with Hepatitis C have opioid use disorder. Overall cases of the virus almost tripled in the past few years, an effect of the opioid crisis and the unsanitary use of needles by drug users, CDC previously reported.

Go deeperOct 3, 2019