{"id":807368,"date":"2026-08-09T00:24:11","date_gmt":"2026-08-09T00:24:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/807368\/"},"modified":"2026-08-09T00:24:11","modified_gmt":"2026-08-09T00:24:11","slug":"rest-assured-the-new-cdc-director-thinks-abortion-surveillance-is-essential-arwa-mahdawi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/807368\/","title":{"rendered":"Rest assured, the new CDC director thinks \u2018abortion surveillance\u2019 is essential | Arwa Mahdawi"},"content":{"rendered":"

Robert F Kennedy Jr\u2019s new cooking show<\/a> isn\u2019t the only big news out of the public health world this week. On Wednesday, Dr Erica Schwartz was confirmed<\/a> by the US Senate as director \u200cof the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), making her the first Black woman to hold the position. This is the first time in almost a year that the agency has had a permanent leader; the previous director, Susan Monarez, only lasted 29 days<\/a> before she was ousted for butting heads with RFK about US vaccine policies. Translation: she was a little too keen on following accepted science for the Trump administration.<\/p>\n

So is Schwartz an RFK-approved vaccine skeptic who thinks you can cure cancer by praying to trees? Surprisingly: no. Schwartz, who served as deputy surgeon general during Trump\u2019s first term, actually has government experience and a public health background. During her confirmation hearing in July, she walked a careful tightrope<\/a> when asked about her stance towards vaccines. Schwartz said she \u201cwill never betray the science\u201d but also dodged questions about how she would handle pressure from Kennedy.<\/p>\n

But don\u2019t breathe a sigh of relief quite yet. During that same confirmation hearing, Schwartz made some chilling remarks about abortion surveillance<\/a> when quizzed on the issue by Missouri senator Josh Hawley, an anti-abortion lawmaker who wants to ban<\/a> the abortion pill mifepristone nationwide.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe CDC collects data on abortions that are committed in the United States of America through a system called the Abortion Reporting System,\u201d Hawley said<\/a> when asking Schwartz whether she would commit to collecting detailed data on abortions. \u201cThis system is voluntary, and so a number of states, not coincidentally large blue states, do not turn over any data, so that it\u2019s difficult to get a picture of just how many abortions and under what circumstances are committed in this country. We do know the numbers are going way up.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSenator, you have my commitment,\u201d Schwartz replied. \u201cAbortion surveillance is absolutely a critical component of what the CDC is currently doing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI also want to make sure that certain states are not conflating emergency services and hiding abortions in that emergency services case definition,\u201d she added. \u201cWe need to make sure we\u2019re pulling out true abortions and making sure that we\u2019re really having clear case definitions regarding abortions so the data is actually accurate.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cTremendous,\u201d Hawley replied. He seemed very happy with her response.<\/p>\n

If you are concerned about the growing criminalization of abortion<\/a> and surveillance of pregnant women in the US, then absolutely nothing about this is tremendous. I\u2019ve quoted the majority of the exchange between Hawley and Schwartz instead of paraphrasing it, because the choice of language is so alarming. First, look at the way in which Hawley frames the issue. He talks about abortions being committed: a loaded word which makes you think of murder. (Imagine it in another medical context: I\u2019m having a mammogram committed tomorrow!) Then he insinuates that blue states are hiding abortion data for nefarious reasons. As it is, 44 states plus Washington DC have some form of mandated abortion reporting, according to the Guttmacher Institute<\/a>, and there is no evidence that these states are hiding anything. New York is an outlier<\/a> in that it only requires abortion reporting when a patient makes a request related to the disposition of the fetus\u2019s remains. Which seems like a sensible policy that protects the privacy of people who have had abortions.<\/p>\n

Now look at Schwartz\u2019s reply. Why would abortion surveillance be \u201ca critical component\u201d of what the CDC is doing? Data collection around abortions can serve legitimate purposes, sure, but isn\u2019t it rather more important for the CDC to be, I dunno, controlling and preventing diseases? Her reference to \u201ctrue abortions\u201d (as opposed to fake ones?) and to states \u201chiding abortions\u201d is also worrying. Pregnant people are already dying preventable deaths<\/a> because providers in states with abortion bans are terrified of treating them. This sort of language from the CDC director is going to make the situation even worse.<\/p>\n

Donald Trump has called Schwartz \u201ca STAR<\/a>\u201d. If her exchange with Hawley is anything to go by, however, she seems to be yet another stooge: happy to facilitate the Trump administration\u2019s anti-abortion agenda and politicization of public health.<\/p>\n

\u201cErica Schwartz\u2019s testimony \u2026 should alarm everyone who believes private medical decisions belong to patients, not politicians,\u201d Mini Timmaraju, the president and CEO of Reproductive Freedom for All, said in a statement. She added that, under the Trump administration<\/a>, \u201cabortion surveillance could be expanded or weaponized to collect more intrusive information, spread disinformation about reproductive health care, and support efforts to investigate or criminalize patients and providers\u201d.<\/p>\n

As activists and experts have repeatedly said, overturning Roe v Wade was just the beginning of the new war on reproductive rights<\/a> in the US \u2013 a war facilitated by an unprecedented network of surveillance technology. The convicted felon<\/a> in the White House seems intent on treating every pregnant woman as a potential criminal.<\/p>\n

Todd Blanche pledged to roll back abortion access nationwide<\/p>\n

During a private call with religious groups, the acting attorney general, Todd Blanche, said efforts to reverse<\/a> the Biden administration\u2019s efforts to protect abortion were \u201ctaking longer than we want\u201d. He seemed to suggest that the administration was working to restrict access to abortion pills and said<\/a>: \u201cWe don\u2019t have complete victory yet, but we will have victory, and victory will be soon, and it will be permanent.\u201d Blanche has faced a rocky road to confirmation as attorney general. The bad news is that the government\u2019s anti-abortion agenda will continue whether he gets the role or not.<\/p>\n

Arizona clergy who learn of child abuse in confessions aren\u2019t required to report it<\/p>\n

That\u2019s according to a new ruling by the state\u2019s supreme court<\/a>. No doubt they\u2019ll soon be forced to report abortions, though!<\/p>\n

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\"\"<\/p>\n

Anya Taylor-Joy has a theory about why method acting is associated with men<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you\u2019ll notice, women don\u2019t method act because we have things to take care of,\u201d Taylor-Joy said in an interview promoting<\/a> her new Apple TV show Lucky (which is extremely good, by the way). Back in 2024, Natalie Portman similarly described<\/a> method acting as a \u201cluxury women can\u2019t afford\u201d. She added: \u201cI don\u2019t think that children or partners would be very understanding of, you know, me making everyone call me \u2018Jackie Kennedy\u2019 all the time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sydney Towle, who shared cancer journey on TikTok, dies aged 26<\/p>\n

More than a million people watched Towle navigate her cholangiocarcinoma, a rare cancer of the bile ducts. She raised awareness<\/a> of the disease and built community. However, because the internet is often toxic, she was also accused by trolls<\/a> of exaggerating or even faking her cancer. It even got to a point where Towle\u2019s doctor had to confirm to the New York Times that she had stage 4 cancer.<\/p>\n

Miscarriages are surging in Gaza and births are declining<\/p>\n

This is not some unfortunate byproduct<\/a> of war; it is by design. Last year, a UN report found that Israel\u2019s systemic attacks on women\u2019s healthcare in Gaza amount to \u201cgenocidal acts<\/a>\u201d. The report noted that Israel\u2019s destruction of maternity wards, an IVF clinic and control on essential supplies into Gaza \u201cdestroyed in part the reproductive capacity of Palestinians in Gaza as a group\u201d.<\/p>\n

The week in pawtriarchy<\/p>\n

A cat called Toast Malone survived a fire<\/a> that destroyed an apartment complex in Utah by hiding in a closet for three days. Toast did not get burned, and has now been reunited<\/a> with their family. Now they\u2019re the toast of the town.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Robert F Kennedy Jr\u2019s new cooking show isn\u2019t the only big news out of the public health world…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":807369,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,3,21,19,22,20,25,24],"class_list":["post-807368","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","tag-america","tag-news","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/807368","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=807368"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/807368\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/807369"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=807368"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=807368"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=807368"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}