Author: MIL-OSI Publisher

Source: The Conversation – USA – By Ingrid C. Romero, Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Natural History, Smithsonian Institution

Approximately 145 million: That’s the number of specimens – including plants, animals, minerals and human artifacts – curators estimate are held in the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. However, these estimates do not reflect the billions of tiny individual specimens contained on microscope slides – thin pieces of glass that fix objects in place for observation – each representing a record of a species at a specific place and time.

Microscope slide collections are an underused part of natural history collections because they are small, fragile and generally not well cataloged. One slide is usually recorded as a single specimen, even though it may contain hundreds of thousands of identifiable samples. They play a significant role in documenting life both present and past, and they are also a core educational resource for training future scientists.

Our team of plant paleontologists and evolutionary biologists use microscopy techniques to extract the full potential of natural history collections. In our recently published research in the journal PLoS One, we developed a way to digitally image whole microscope slides and make the specimens they contain available to scientists and students around the world.

Unseen troves of specimens

The Denver Pollen Collection contains about 70,000 slides of fossilized pollen extracted from rocks of many geological ages. The collection, now housed at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, represents over 60 years of effort by scores of geologists and paleontologists working for the U.S. Geological Survey, gathering specimens from all over the continental U.S., Alaska and many other parts of the world.

Presented with one of the most complete fossil records of plant life in existence, scientists have used this collection to understand how vegetation and climate changed over geological time.

For example, through studying the Denver Pollen Collection, researchers discovered that the North Slope of Alaska had a temperate to subtropical climate about 50 to 56 million years ago that allowed palm trees to grow north of the Arctic Circle.

The collection was also critical in determining how quickly vegetation recovered from the asteroid impact that caused mass extinctions 66 million years ago.

Despite its scientific value, the number of specimens in the Denver Pollen Collection had never been estimated. When the Smithsonian received the collection in 2021, our team began digitally imaging some of these slides over the course of several years.

We estimate this collection holds approximately 4.3 billion microfossils – four times more specimens than were previously estimated to exist in all the collections of the world’s 73 largest natural history museums combined.

Preserving specimens through digitization

Digitizing microscope slides is important for preserving the information they contain. Many slides are deteriorating – the mounting medium that holds the cover slips can yellow and crack with time, obscuring the specimens from view.

In our study, we show how using up-to-date microscope slide scanners can help researchers digitize and preserve microspecimens – including pollen, diatoms and radiolarians – as well as small insects and various plant and fungal tissues. These scanners can digitize full slides at high resolution. Each scan takes seconds to a few minutes, depending on the size of the specimen. They can also capture 3D images of organs and features within specimens.

Traditionally, natural history studies relied on the expertise of a single specialist. An expert might spend dozens of hours manually analyzing a microscope slide and find only a fraction of the thousands of specimens present. Additionally, other researchers can verify their findings only if they have access to the same slide.

With slide scanning and digital imaging, researchers can use AI models to detect most of the specimens in a slide and record where they’re located on a slide. This makes it easier to not only relocate individual specimens but also access them remotely across the web, thus improving researchers’ ability to replicate and verify the accuracy of studies.

Digitizing specimens on microscope slides not only preserves information as the slides themselves deteriorate, but it also makes it more accessible for researchers, students and the public.

Digital slide images give students in botany, entomology, micropaleontology and other fields access to vast reference collections that may not be available in their home countries. This enlarges the talent pool in these fields by allowing students from all over the globe to participate in original research, such as on how climate change is affecting extinction and the migration of different species.

Open-access databases of digital microscopy also make scientific collaboration easier. Researchers can examine and measure images at any location at any time, without needing to handle the physical slide. This reduces barriers to sharing science as well as the risk of damaging slides during transportation or handling.

Future of microscope slide collections

Digitizing microscope slides in natural history museums and automating how microfossils are labeled opens up more opportunities for researchers to share and study hundreds of billions of specimens in collections around the globe.

However, digitization is not without cost. We estimate that fully digitizing the Denver Pollen Collection would require almost five years of continuous work and about 3.5 petabytes of storage. But we believe these efforts will return a massive dataset that captures changes in the Earth’s flora and climate over geological time.

Digital microscopy opens new horizons for fields such as micropaleontology to explore the biodiversity of the planet. There is a whole galaxy of nature waiting to be seen … and it is already stored in museums and universities around the world.

Ingrid C. Romero has received funding from the Smithsonian Institution Climate Change Fellowship, the National Museum of Natural History Office of the Associated Director for Science, and the Smithsonian Office of the Undersecretary for Science.
She is affiliated with The Micropaleontological Society, and currently she is the Palynology Group Chair.

Scott L. Wing receives funding from the Smithsonian Institution (Life on a Sustainable Planet Program and the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History).

– ref. Galaxies of life are collecting dust in museums – digitizing microscope slides can uncover billions of fossils for natural history – https://theconversation.com/galaxies-of-life-are-collecting-dust-in-museums-digitizing-microscope-slides-can-uncover-billions-of-fossils-for-natural-history-281304

Source: The Conversation – USA – By Gabrielle Principe, Professor of Psychology, College of Charleston

Hollywood loves a superpower. Not all involve capes or cosmic rays. Some are cognitive: characters who can remember everything. In movies and on TV, viewers repeatedly encounter those with extraordinary minds who glance once at a page, a room or a face – and later recreate every detail with surgical precision.

You see it everywhere: “Suits,” “Sherlock” and “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.” Even in children’s literature there’s fifth grader Cam Jansen, who activates her photolike memory by saying “Click!”

Most recently, it appeared in the television series “The Pitt,” set in a hospital emergency department. When the digital patient board suddenly went offline, medical student Joy Kwon saved the day by effortlessly reciting from memory every lost detail – names, rooms, doctors, conditions, vitals. It’s a gripping moment. The stakes are high, recall is perfect, and the implication is clear: Some people have minds that function like high-resolution cameras.

The idea of photographic memory is simple and powerful: Experience is captured objectively, stored completely and retrieved perfectly. See it once, keep it forever.

There’s just one problem. There’s no scientific evidence it exists.

Your memory doesn’t record, it reconstructs

As a memory researcher, I understand that belief in photographic memory is common and the idea is compelling. But it is simply wrong.

Human memory does not work like a recording device. It’s a reconstructive process even among those with the most extraordinary skills. When you recall an event, memory doesn’t just hand you your experiences the same way every time. It’s never a matter of simply accessing, retrieving and playing back a static record of a stored slice of the past.

Rather, you reconstruct the past by piecing together the remnants of experience available to you in the moment of recollection. It’s a process shaped by a range of factors, including the search cues you use; your present knowledge, attitudes and goals; and your current state of mind or mood.

Because each of these factors is dynamic and changing, you’ll remember the past differently today – if ever so slightly – from how you remembered it yesterday, and differently from how you’ll remember it tomorrow. What you remember is not only incomplete but also inexact.

A closer look at extraordinary memory

Some people, such as memory competition champions, do have extraordinary memories. They can memorize thousands of digits or entire decks of cards in minutes. Their feats are real, but they don’t come from a memory that takes mental snapshots.

Instead, these people rely on strategies – mental frameworks built through thousands of hours of deliberate practice to scaffold their memory in specific domains. Without these strategies and in other aspects of life, their recall looks pretty much like everyone else’s. Experts’ performance reflects better methods, not different machinery.

In the scientific literature, the ability that comes closest to photographic memory is eidetic imagery: a form of visual mental imagery in which people claim they can briefly continue to “see” pictures they carefully studied and that are then removed from view.

This ability is rare, is seen mostly in children, and usually disappears by adolescence. Even at its peak, however, it falls short of the Hollywood ideal. Eidetic images fade quickly and are not perfectly accurate. They can include distortions and even details that were not seen.

It’s exactly what you’d expect from a reconstructive memory system – and exactly what you would not expect from a literal recording.

Forgetting is a feature and not a flaw

The myth about photographic memories feeds into the idea that your memory has failed if you can’t remember – that if your memory worked right, it would operate like a camera. When you can’t retrieve information or you lose it entirely, it can feel like something has gone wrong.

In reality, forgetting is functional. Without it, we’d never get by.

For instance, people use their memories of the past to forecast the future. Perfect memory would be a liability. Forgetting washes out the details of specific episodes and retains the gist so you can apply past experiences to novel situations, not just those that exactly match what happened before.

Forgetting also guards your emotional health. The dulling of memories for negative events, like say an embarrassing episode, makes it easier for you to move on than if you reexperienced all the details in full force every time the event came to mind.

Forgetting protects your sense of self as well. Memories of your past form the foundation of your identity. To help maintain a stable self-concept, people selectively modify or even forget those memories that challenge their views of themselves.

The rare individuals who come closest to having near-perfect memory often reveal the downsides. People with highly superior autobiographical memory can remember nearly every day of their lives in vivid detail. If you ask one of these people to recall what they did on Nov. 24, 1999, they likely can tell you.

Their extraordinary ability seems to come from a habitual, even compulsive, reflection on their past and a focus on anchoring memories to dates. However, this skill is limited to autobiographical events, and they are prone to various kinds of memory distortions and errors just like everyone else.

While this ability might sound like an advantage, many people with highly superior autobiographical memory describe it as exhausting. They struggle to move past negative experiences because their memories make them seem as sharp as ever.

Accurate – and empowering – view of memory

Beliefs about “perfect memory” shape how people judge students, eyewitnesses, patients and even themselves. They influence legal decisions, educational practices and unrealistic expectations about what human minds can – and should – do.

Letting go of the camera metaphor could be a step toward better understanding how memory works. The brain is not a roll of film, it’s a storyteller – one that edits, interprets and reshapes the past in light of the present.

And that’s not a limitation. It’s a superpower.

Gabrielle Principe does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. Photographic memory is a myth – here’s what research really says about remembering – https://theconversation.com/photographic-memory-is-a-myth-heres-what-research-really-says-about-remembering-278160

Source: The Conversation – USA (2) – By Steph Tai, Professor of Law and Associate Dean, Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies, University of Wisconsin-Madison

The question of which court should hear a case isn’t always as easy as it might seem – and the answer can sometimes make a difference in the potential outcome. For instance, in 2013, the government of Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana, decided to sue several oil companies for violating a 1978 state law that required a state permit for oil production along the Louisiana coast.

Some of that oil production activity dated back even further, to World War II. The oil companies, led by Chevron, fought the lawsuit in part by saying they were under a federal contract and following federal directives to boost oil production to support the war effort.

The case made its way to the Supreme Court over a question that was not about the substance of the case – whether the companies had or had not violated the state law – but rather whether the dispute should be heard in a Louisiana state court, or whether it should be heard in federal court. On April 17, 2026, the Supreme Court issued a unanimous decision making it easier for companies to move cases from state to federal courts. The ruling is likely to make it harder for the public to seek redress from companies they believe acted wrongly.

Jurisdiction questions

The question of state versus federal jurisdiction is a technical legal one, but for a scholar who studies local challenges to quasi-federal actions, I can report that the difference can be significant.

Common wisdom among attorneys is that state courts are more friendly to plaintiffs than federal courts are, since state trial juries are drawn from local pools, which are potentially more sympathetic to their own communities. But in fact, the distinction – and the prospect for any particular outcome – is not quite so clear because federal judges exert more control over jury selection than state judges do.

Plaintiffs’ attorneys may also be more familiar with local state court rules and procedures than they are with the mechanics of how federal courts operate – and some state courts may be more welcoming to plaintiffs’ claims of having been harmed, and therefore more likely to find that they have standing to file a lawsuit. And in some state courts, it is harder for a defendant to get a case quickly dismissed by a judge than is typical in federal court.

The dispute in Louisiana

In the Plaquemines Parish case against Chevron, the oil companies argued that because some of their drilling activities were conducted as federal contractors during the war, they were acting as an agent of the federal government, so the case belonged in federal court.

Plaquemines Parish said the companies had significant control themselves over how they increased production and what they did to produce oil, and therefore the dispute was about the state law’s permitting requirements and should be heard in state court.

The Supreme Court, in an opinion written by Justice Clarence Thomas, sided with Chevron, saying the company had “plausibly alleged a close relationship between its challenged conduct and the performance of its federal duties – not a tenuous, remote, or peripheral” connection.

Effect on government contractors

This opinion sets a precedent, which courts typically follow for future similar cases, that has the potential to broadly affect corporate behavior, especially in connection with government-related work.

For instance, the federal government is seeking private contractors to help with artificial intelligence services for the Department of Defense, operating Immigration and Customs Enforcement facilities and potentially privatizing the Transportation Security Administration.

Anyone alleging harm from these practices – such as if generative AI systems or airport screening practices unfairly discriminate against some people, or the construction of a new ICE detention center damages a local waterway – would likely have to take the more significant and more demanding step of suing in federal court, rather than state court, to seek compensation or redress.

Steph Tai does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. As government privatization efforts grow, lawsuits against federal contractors get more difficult – https://theconversation.com/as-government-privatization-efforts-grow-lawsuits-against-federal-contractors-get-more-difficult-277447

Source: The Conversation – USA (2) – By Mark E. Wildmon, Assistant Professor of School Psychology, Mississippi State University

When schools abruptly closed their doors at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in the spring of 2020, millions of students unexpectedly started learning at home, with or without the help of Zoom lessons.

Many observers – and perhaps some parents – assumed these kids would return to in-person classrooms once the COVID-19 risk decreased. But homeschooling numbers indicate that many families chose to keep their kids home after the pandemic.

Today, more than 6% of school-age children – or 3.4 million students – are learning at home.

This is higher than before the COVID-19 online learning period. In March 2020, 5.4% of school-age children in the U.S. were homeschooled.

Growth in homeschooling has been gradual.

About 3.4% of K-12 students in the U.S. were homeschooled during the 2022-23 academic year, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.

More than one-third of the 30 states plus Washington, D.C., that report homeschooling trends hit record enrollment as of November 2025. The growth is particularly strong in Midwestern and Southeastern states.

Homeschooling has a long history in the U.S. and is legal in all 50 states. States have varying requirements for homeschooling families, from close state regulation to none at all.

Contrary to what many people thought, the pandemic alone didn’t drive this increase. It gave families who were already inclined toward homeschooling a low-risk opportunity to try it.

Families who found benefits from homeschooling continued to teach their children at home. In essence, the forced opportunity to help their kids learn at home during the pandemic let the families experience the benefits of the experience without the permanent risk.

A jumping-off point

We are researchers at Mississippi State University who study why parents want to homeschool. As part of our forthcoming research, we conducted a survey in 2024 with 201 homeschooling parents, primarily those who live in Southern states and were part of national homeschooling networks and educational organizations.

The parents we surveyed were divided into two groups: parents who began homeschooling before the pandemic and those who started homeschooling during the pandemic. While this is a self-selected sample and not nationally representative, it allowed us to look at the differences between people who began homeschooling before and during the pandemic.

The findings tell a very different story than some narratives suggest.

Rather than saying COVID-19 prompted them to begin homeschooling, many parents said that they found during the pandemic there were certain homeschooling benefits. This encouraged them to keep their kids learning at home after schools reopened.

For example, 43% percent of the parents we surveyed said there were more benefits to homeschooling than public schooling – such as flexible work arrangements and more family time.

One parent, a former teacher, said her kids thrived during the initial months at home and that she felt equipped to continue. Another parent called homeschooling a gift that let their family slow down and be present for one another and their community. A third parent realized her children didn’t need eight hours in a classroom to get a quality education.

In other words, parents we surveyed said that homeschooling during the pandemic was an unplanned trial to homeschool. Those who said they perceived positive benefits continued to homeschool.

Similar motivations, different journeys

Researchers often refer to push or pull factors to describe how families make homeschooling decisions. Push factors explain why families leave public education for homeschooling. These include a lack of safety or bad experiences at school, or a school that cannot meet a child’s particular needs.

Pull factors are the reasons why families are drawn to homeschooling for its own sake. They include flexibility with school hours, a closer relationship with family and a customized, educational environment.

In our study, parents who were homeschooling before the pandemic began and those who began homeschooling during the pandemic had similar motivations to homeschool.

COVID-19 health concerns were largely dismissed by both groups. More than 60% of the parents from both groups indicated they did not believe that COVID-19-related health issues, such as masking requirements and vaccination mandates, affected their choice to homeschool or continue homeschooling.

Time matters more than money

Our survey results demonstrated that there was a stronger relationship between flexibility in work schedule and motivation to homeschool than there was with family income and motivation to homeschool. In other words, families who had flexibility in their schedule to find the time to teach their own were especially likely to homeschool.

For example, self-employed and stay-at-home parents were more likely to continue homeschooling their kids than those working full time. Specifically, parents who worked outside the home less than 10 hours per week were far more likely than parents who work full time to want to homeschool because of their child’s specific needs.

These findings challenge the idea that homeschooling is primarily a path for wealthy families. In this sample, the families who homeschooled weren’t necessarily the ones with the highest incomes. They were the ones whose work lives gave them the time.

Why policy keeps missing the mark

To be clear, there are many reasons families homeschool, but our research indicates that the families in our study made a thoughtful and informed decision to homeschool.

If school districts are relying upon children returning to enroll in public schools when they were previously homeschooled, they may be misjudging the situation. It seems that some families intend to continue homeschooling for the long term. Our research indicates that the pandemic did not necessarily produce a surge in interest in homeschooling, as much as it revealed an existing level of demand – in some cases.

Understanding the reasons behind these demands could provide legislators and educators with a greater opportunity to develop regulations and practices that are consistent with how families are making educational choices.

The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. The lasting appeal of homeschooling: What motivated families to continue after schools reopened post-pandemic – https://theconversation.com/the-lasting-appeal-of-homeschooling-what-motivated-families-to-continue-after-schools-reopened-post-pandemic-280118

Source: The Conversation – USA (3) – By Gretchen E. Ely, Professor of Social Welfare, Stony Brook University (The State University of New York)

A 35-year-old Kentucky woman was arrested in late 2025, accused of taking abortion pills that she ordered online.

The gestational age and status of the pregnancy is unknown. But Kentucky, like the majority of Southern states that contain Appalachian counties, has a complete abortion ban.

Mifepristone is a medication approved by the Food and Drug Administration for self-administered abortion care through 10 weeks’ gestation, and research suggests it is safe and effective up to 16 weeks. Mifepristone can still be ordered into states with abortion bans after the Supreme Court weighed in on the matter on May 4, 2026.

Abortion is illegal in Kentucky, however, and the police viewed the woman’s actions as criminal. A grand jury supported bringing charges, including fetal homicide, “abuse of a corpse” and tampering with physical evidence. Her distressed mugshot was plastered all over regional news sites.

As a social work researcher who studies access to reproductive healthcare in underserved Appalachian communities, I have worked with clients in similar circumstances. I have observed that many decisions to end pregnancies are motivated by intense barriers to accessing healthcare – not by criminal intent.

It can be extremely difficult for women in this region to get healthcare, and these access burdens affect quality of life in the region. For example, research suggests that Appalachian women are more likely to die at younger ages when compared to women living in other regions of the United States.

Here are six factors I consider when a case like this appears in the news.

1. Abortion bans do not stop abortion

Data clearly shows that outlawing abortion care does not stop abortions from happening.

According to data from the Society of Family Planning’s #WeCount project, U.S. abortion rates have actually increased since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, ending federal abortion protections.

What state abortion bans do is change how people try to get care.

2. Abortion bans isolate patients from doctors

For people living in most of rural Appalachia, brick-and-mortar abortion facilities are currently only available in another state, often a great distance away.

The only way many people can get care, then, is to order pills and self-manage their own abortion.

When someone orders abortion pills without medical consultation, however, there is more room for error in assessing relevant medical information, such as how far along their pregnancy is. When abortion care is legal and accessible, like other forms of healthcare, such estimates are made in consultation with a health provider.

Multiple clinics, community groups and pharmacies will send abortion pills to Kentucky for self-managing abortions up to about 13 weeks into pregnancy, according to the abortion access resource Plan C. These places may offer medical support, peer support or no additional support at all.

Patients who do involve a telehealth provider report satisfaction with that experience.

Yet patients in abortion-ban states may avoid using sites that are connected to support services because they fear being discovered and prosecuted. Abortion bans may therefore compel patients to make critical reproductive health decisions without consulting an expert.

This may have occurred in the Kentucky case, according to what the law enforcement officers reported to the Lexington Herald-Leader newspaper.

3. Ending Roe worsened healthcare deserts

Another factor to consider is how abortion bans contribute to existing healthcare deserts in rural Appalachian communities.

Even before the repeal of Roe, people living in Appalachian communities were not getting adequate healthcare. Communities in central and southern Appalachia face significant health disparities: These regions have higher illness and death rates and increased risk of cancer and diabetes compared to non-Appalachian areas of the United States.

In part, that has to do with inadequate healthcare infrastructure endemic in rural parts of the country. Geographic isolation, limited financial incentives and lack of infrastructure decrease the number of available health providers, meaning that only about 9% of U.S. physicians practice in rural areas.

Appalachia has lost regional obstetric services in recent years and seen numerous hospital closures, further discouraging providers from working there. One study found that of 53 rural hospitals that closed between 2005 and 2016, 66% of them were in Southern states, 21% in Appalachia.

This has reduced access to specialty care, including reproductive healthcare.

Abortion bans have compounded all these problems. They make it difficult, if not impossible, for providers to practice within established standards of care when treating conditions such as miscarriage, which can discourage ER physicians and OB-GYNs from remaining in red states.

The shortage of medical professionals makes it increasingly challenging to obtain reproductive healthcare in the region – except by mail.

4. Poverty influences reproductive decisions

Money is another important factor in people’s reproductive choices.

Research indicates that financial distress is a main reason that people seek abortions. Those who are denied abortion access are more likely to be in poverty four years after they give birth than those who were able to access it.

Appalachia’s history of resource extraction has left it impoverished. In Central Appalachia – in Kentucky – up to 21% of residents live in poverty.

The median household income in adjusted 2023 dollars in Wolfe County, Kentucky, where the woman was arrested, is just over US$29,000, compared to about $79,000 in the rest of the country. It costs approximately $232,000 to raise a child in Kentucky from birth to age 18, the mortgage broker LendingTree calculated in April 2026.

Facing the daunting cost of another mouth to feed, families confronting an unintended pregnancy may see abortion as a financial necessity. Appalachian residents in these circumstances are figuring out how to get the abortion care they need against steep odds.

5. In rural Appalachia, abortion can carry stigma

In rural Appalachian communities where most residents know each other, abortion and reproductive health stigma – some of which, research suggests, is rooted in religiosity – can present a significant barrier to care.

My own research has found that stigma may dissuade Appalachians from seeking healthcare and discussing sexual health topics with providers due to fear of judgment. Many Appalachians have reported to me their negative reproductive health visits with regional medical providers, including attempts to coerce patients into using or not using contraception.

Because abortion is stigmatized in Appalachian communities, healthcare workers may be inclined to inform police on their patients.

One news report indicates that in cases where abortions were reported to police, 39% of reports were made by health professionals and another 6% by social workers. In 412 cases of pregnancy criminalization analyzed by the advocacy group Pregnancy Justice, 264 involved information that had been disclosed in a medical setting.

That is what happened in the Kentucky case: People working in a clinic allegedly told the police that the woman had disclosed her abortion.

Abortion medication shipped directly to one’s home, by contrast, offers privacy.

The prosecutor eventually dismissed the homicide charge, because Kentucky law exempts pregnant people from being prosecuted for getting abortion care. But other charges were added, including concealing the birth of an infant. The woman may still be facing legal consequences.

6. Sex education is important – and lacking

One final factor I consider relevant in understanding this case is sex education – or rather, the lack of it in most Appalachian states.

Kentucky requires some sexual health education in public schools, but each county can dictate much of the content. Sex education in the state is not required to be comprehensive, and it must promote abstinence.

As NPR reported in 2023, there are parts of rural Appalachia without comprehensive sex education, where contraception is unaffordable and abortion is also banned. Those trying to provide better sex education have faced harassment and threats of violence.

When people do not receive the sexual health education needed to know their bodies and how they function, they are more vulnerable to negative health outcomes such as unintended pregnancy. And they may not know their bodies well enough to know how long they’ve been pregnant when they make reproductive health choices.

Bad policies, impossible situations

All of the factors listed above could potentially affect people in any community. But rural Appalachian communities are disproportionately affected by a confluence of these factors.

In my analysis, the Kentucky case elucidates how poor health infrastructure and bad health policies – such as abortion bans – place one barrier after another in front of people who are just trying to do the best they can to cope with an unintended pregnancy.

This story was produced in collaboration with Rewire News Group, an independent newsroom dedicated to covering reproductive health in the United States.

Gretchen E. Ely has previously received funding for her research from the Society of Family Planning.

– ref. In rural Appalachia, abortion pill offers reproductive choice and privacy − but police may see a crime – https://theconversation.com/in-rural-appalachia-abortion-pill-offers-reproductive-choice-and-privacy-but-police-may-see-a-crime-279493

Source: The Conversation – USA (3) – By Lindsay Stark, Professor of Public Health, Washington University in St. Louis

When the world shut down due to the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020, another crisis quietly grew behind closed doors. Reports from around the globe suggested that violence against women and girls was increasing. Governments, nongovernmental organizations and advocates began referring to the phenomenon as a “shadow pandemic.”

To determine whether these headlines and informal reports reflected reality, we led the first-ever comprehensive review of studies tracking violence against women and girls during infectious disease outbreaks across low- and middle-income countries. We focused on those regions because less research on the topic has been done there, and women and girls face specific risks, such as child marriage, that are less prevalent in wealthier nations.

Our findings, published in BMJ Global Health and co-authored with UNICEF, are both clear and concerning: Violence against women and girls tends to increase during outbreaks, and the very measures used to control disease spread can lead to that rise.

Across 53 studies measuring changes in violence against women and girls in the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, the majority found increases, with some studies showing no change and relatively few showing declines. This pattern held across different types of violence – for example, physical domestic violence, sexual domestic violence, psychological violence or online violence – particularly committed within the home.

But even more striking was how little evidence there was from other infectious disease outbreaks. Despite the growing frequency of global health emergencies, only one study examined violence against women and girls during an outbreak other than COVID-19, specifically examining violence in Sierra Leone during both Ebola and COVID-19.

How outbreaks contribute to gender-based violence

Infectious disease outbreaks do more than spread illness. They can disrupt economies, burden health systems and reshape daily life. These shifts can amplify existing inequalities and, in many cases, increase the risk of violence.

Our research identified five key pathways through which outbreaks contribute to violence against women and girls.

First, job loss, reduced income and financial stress were the most consistently identified contributors to violence. When households experience economic strain, tensions rise – and women and girls often bear the consequences. In some contexts, economic stress was linked not only to intimate partner violence but also to harmful practices like child marriage.

Second, movement restrictions like lockdowns and quarantines can trap women and girls with abusive partners or family members. While these outbreak response measures are designed to reduce disease transmission, they can also isolate women from social networks and limit opportunities to seek both formal and informal help.

Third, deeming certain services as nonessential reduces people’s access to support. During COVID-19, many health, social and legal services were scaled back or became harder to access. School closures also meant that girls in some contexts faced increased risks of exploitation, early pregnancy or forced marriage.

Fourth, perpetrators may use women’s and girls’ fear of infection to control or manipulate them. For example, men sometimes discouraged their partners from leaving the home or seeking care in order to avoid disease risk.

Finally, women’s and girls’ past experiences with health systems can influence their intention to seek services in the future. In settings affected by earlier outbreaks, such as the 2014 Ebola outbreak, mistrust of health services discouraged some survivors from seeking care after experiencing violence, especially if doing so might lead to quarantine or mistreatment.

These pathways are not isolated. They often interact and reinforce one another, creating conditions in which violence becomes more likely during crises.

Building better evidence

Public health emergencies are becoming more frequent, and measures like lockdowns and limiting access to schools, clinics and other services can have unintended consequences.
Our findings show that protecting women and girls needs to be part of how public health experts respond to outbreaks from the start and not something to address only after violence has already increased.

Tracking the issue in different types of outbreaks – such as cholera, influenza or Ebola – could help determine which policy responses are most protective.

But even within COVID-19 research, we uncovered important limitations. First, most studies focused on adult women, with far less attention to girls. And second, many studies relied on metrics such as the number of hotline calls or clinic visits, which can be misleading. A drop in reports does not necessarily mean a drop in violence; it may reflect reduced access to services or greater barriers to reporting.

Despite the data gaps we uncovered, our study already points to targeted strategies that can protect women and girls: reducing households’ financial stress, making services safe and easy to reach, ensuring girls’ continued access to school, and building stronger community support.

The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. Financial strain, lockdowns and fear of infection during disease outbreaks magnify violence against women and girls − new research – https://theconversation.com/financial-strain-lockdowns-and-fear-of-infection-during-disease-outbreaks-magnify-violence-against-women-and-girls-new-research-280210