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Apple's Health app keeps evolving, with aspirations to be a complete combination personal data archive, medical liaison and insight engine. But the goals, while ambitious, aren't fully realized yet. iOS 16 and WatchOS 9 are adding medication management and multistage sleep tracking to a growing list of features. But what comes next, and will it start to become a tool that interfaces with doctors even more than it has?
Apple just published a multipage health report (PDF), which aims to detail where the company sees its health focus heading on the iPhone and the Apple Watch. The report covers the app, research studies and initiatives with medical organizations.
As Google prepares to release a Pixel Watch that will connect to Fitbit's features and services, Apple looks to be strengthening its position by expanding beyond the watch to a larger spectrum of health services. Already, Apple Health and Fitness Plus are evolving into services you don't need an Apple Watch to use.
When will Health start to become an extension of how I connect with my own doctors? Will sleep tracking offer a doorway to other health insights? And why doesn't Apple have its own equivalent of the "readiness score" used by Fitbit and Oura?
Apple's vice president of health, Dr. Sumbul Desai, spoke with CNET about the goals of Apple Health and where goals are being set next. She sees the blend of lifestyle with clinical data, medication data and an increasing number of metrics in one place as helping future insights in other health measurements over time.
"You have to do it in a really thoughtful and meaningful way," Desai said. "Because there are also correlations you can make that are incorrect. That's where the work is, making sure that when you make those connections that they are correct, grounded in the science and make sense to the user."
Medication tracking on iOS 16 looks like another step to bring medical histories onto Health.
Apple
Where does Apple Health meet your doctor?
As I've found over the last few months, over several surgeries and doctor visits, my own medical care doesn't often connect with my wearable and phone apps. Apple's been aiming to make strides to connect Apple Health with medical providers, but the framework isn't fully there yet for digital health platforms. A lot of Apple's promised benefits are in identifying long-term data patterns and insights.
"I do think how they interact with each other is really important," said Desai, who points to the new tracking of atrial fibrillation patterns over time in Watch OS 9. "We are actually taking how much time you're in AFib and correlating it to your lifestyle. How much you're sleeping. How much you're moving, you'll see the changes in AFib. If you're using Mindful Minutes, do you see a change."
Apple has tried making data sharing easier with doctors, but right now it still doesn't go far enough. At the medical group where I'm a patient, for instance, there's no obvious way to share the data I'm collecting in Apple Health through the patient portal.
Sleep tracking is gaining sleep stages in WatchOS 9. Will that bring a wave of other health insights down the road?
Apple
Sleep as the next frontier?
Apple's addition of sleep stage-based sleep tracking in the upcoming Watch OS 9 looks to close the gap on other fitness trackers like those from Fitbit, Samsung and Oura. Apple's been pulling new features for the Apple Watch from work in some of the company's ongoing heart research studies, and sleep could end up being a place that evolves next.
"What I'm really excited to learn from a scientific standpoint is, does the amount of sleep that you're getting in certain stages, like core [replenishing sleep], does that actually translate to benefit during the day when you're moving?" Desai said. "Are there certain phenotypes of certain people who have more benefit versus others? There's so much to tackle from a research standpoint there. We would never put anything out until we knew we kind of had some scientific grounding. The whole causation-correlation thing can get very tricky."
Desai suggested future research combining sleep stage data with Apple's ongoing heart and move data from its ongoing study will possibly provide more insights, "but we're still a ways away from that."
Could Apple ever develop its own readiness score?
One thing Apple's evolving and elaborate set of Health insights currently doesn't have is any sort of attempt at a distilled score, or personal health rating. Fitbit, Oura, and a number of other wearables have daily personal scores derived from a variety of individual metrics. I asked Desai whether Apple might pursue a similar idea anytime soon. While it sounds like a direction Apple Health could head in, it also seems like Apple is still trying to lock down the best path to get there.
"It's a really good question. I think the answer is, to be honest, is we don't have a firm POV yet," Desai said. "We want to understand the science behind that, and what can we understand and glean from a scientific standpoint."
Desai suggests that the health measurements, and their meanings, can vary. "HRV [heart rate variability] is a great metric. I'm super fascinated by HRV. But HRV can be changed based on multiple reasons." She suggested that Apple's eventual evolution of its insights will need to come with clear guidance, too.
"I think for us, we want to be able to provide actionable information. So to understand to do that, you actually have to be able to draw it back to, what we think is actually causing that? We are really trying to understand the science behind all of these different metrics and focus on how we provide insights that we know we can back up."
On whether Apple Health could come to other non-Apple devices
Apple's aiming for Health to be a comprehensive, secure system for anyone to use, but it still flows through Apple hardware, which means a portion of the population will always be left out. I asked Desai whether Apple Health might ever be available beyond iPhones.
"We're always looking at ways to support the ecosystem. We just want to make sure we can support that in a private and secure way. That's fundamentally what drives our decision making," Desai said. "We have a ton of things in the App Store ecosystem that are super interesting that people are doing, and we're very supportive of supporting that work.
"Honestly, we make a lot of decisions driven by privacy. And there's a lot of things we choose not to do and choose to do, based upon that."
The information contained in this article is for educational and informational purposes only and is not intended as health or medical advice. Always consult a physician or other qualified health provider regarding any questions you may have about a medical condition or health objectives.
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What the Future of Health Looks Like for Apple
What the Future of Health Looks Like for Apple
Apple's Health app keeps evolving, with aspirations to be a complete combination personal data archive, medical liaison and insight engine. But the goals, while ambitious, aren't fully realized yet. iOS 16 and WatchOS 9 are adding medication management and multistage sleep tracking to a growing list of features. But what comes next, and will it start to become a tool that interfaces with doctors even more than it has?
Apple just published a multipage health report (PDF), which aims to detail where the company sees its health focus heading on the iPhone and the Apple Watch. The report covers the app, research studies and initiatives with medical organizations.
As Google prepares to release a Pixel Watch that will connect to Fitbit's features and services, Apple looks to be strengthening its position by expanding beyond the watch to a larger spectrum of health services. Already, Apple Health and Fitness Plus are evolving into services you don't need an Apple Watch to use.
When will Health start to become an extension of how I connect with my own doctors? Will sleep tracking offer a doorway to other health insights? And why doesn't Apple have its own equivalent of the "readiness score" used by Fitbit and Oura?
Apple's vice president of health, Dr. Sumbul Desai, spoke with CNET about the goals of Apple Health and where goals are being set next. She sees the blend of lifestyle with clinical data, medication data and an increasing number of metrics in one place as helping future insights in other health measurements over time.
"You have to do it in a really thoughtful and meaningful way," Desai said. "Because there are also correlations you can make that are incorrect. That's where the work is, making sure that when you make those connections that they are correct, grounded in the science and make sense to the user."
Medication tracking on iOS 16 looks like another step to bring medical histories onto Health.
Apple
Where does Apple Health meet your doctor?
As I've found over the last few months, over several surgeries and doctor visits, my own medical care doesn't often connect with my wearable and phone apps. Apple's been aiming to make strides to connect Apple Health with medical providers, but the framework isn't fully there yet for digital health platforms. A lot of Apple's promised benefits are in identifying long-term data patterns and insights.
"I do think how they interact with each other is really important," said Desai, who points to the new tracking of atrial fibrillation patterns over time in Watch OS 9. "We are actually taking how much time you're in AFib and correlating it to your lifestyle. How much you're sleeping. How much you're moving, you'll see the changes in AFib. If you're using Mindful Minutes, do you see a change."
Apple has tried making data sharing easier with doctors, but right now it still doesn't go far enough. At the medical group where I'm a patient, for instance, there's no obvious way to share the data I'm collecting in Apple Health through the patient portal.
Sleep tracking is gaining sleep stages in WatchOS 9. Will that bring a wave of other health insights down the road?
Apple
Sleep as the next frontier?
Apple's addition of sleep stage-based sleep tracking in the upcoming Watch OS 9 looks to close the gap on other fitness trackers like those from Fitbit, Samsung and Oura. Apple's been pulling new features for the Apple Watch from work in some of the company's ongoing heart research studies, and sleep could end up being a place that evolves next.
"What I'm really excited to learn from a scientific standpoint is, does the amount of sleep that you're getting in certain stages, like core [replenishing sleep], does that actually translate to benefit during the day when you're moving?" Desai said. "Are there certain phenotypes of certain people who have more benefit versus others? There's so much to tackle from a research standpoint there. We would never put anything out until we knew we kind of had some scientific grounding. The whole causation-correlation thing can get very tricky."
Desai suggested future research combining sleep stage data with Apple's ongoing heart and move data from its ongoing study will possibly provide more insights, "but we're still a ways away from that."
Could Apple ever develop its own readiness score?
One thing Apple's evolving and elaborate set of Health insights currently doesn't have is any sort of attempt at a distilled score, or personal health rating. Fitbit, Oura, and a number of other wearables have daily personal scores derived from a variety of individual metrics. I asked Desai whether Apple might pursue a similar idea anytime soon. While it sounds like a direction Apple Health could head in, it also seems like Apple is still trying to lock down the best path to get there.
"It's a really good question. I think the answer is, to be honest, is we don't have a firm POV yet," Desai said. "We want to understand the science behind that, and what can we understand and glean from a scientific standpoint."
Desai suggests that the health measurements, and their meanings, can vary. "HRV [heart rate variability] is a great metric. I'm super fascinated by HRV. But HRV can be changed based on multiple reasons." She suggested that Apple's eventual evolution of its insights will need to come with clear guidance, too.
"I think for us, we want to be able to provide actionable information. So to understand to do that, you actually have to be able to draw it back to, what we think is actually causing that? We are really trying to understand the science behind all of these different metrics and focus on how we provide insights that we know we can back up."
On whether Apple Health could come to other non-Apple devices
Apple's aiming for Health to be a comprehensive, secure system for anyone to use, but it still flows through Apple hardware, which means a portion of the population will always be left out. I asked Desai whether Apple Health might ever be available beyond iPhones.
"We're always looking at ways to support the ecosystem. We just want to make sure we can support that in a private and secure way. That's fundamentally what drives our decision making," Desai said. "We have a ton of things in the App Store ecosystem that are super interesting that people are doing, and we're very supportive of supporting that work.
"Honestly, we make a lot of decisions driven by privacy. And there's a lot of things we choose not to do and choose to do, based upon that."
The information contained in this article is for educational and informational purposes only and is not intended as health or medical advice. Always consult a physician or other qualified health provider regarding any questions you may have about a medical condition or health objectives.
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What the Future of Health Looks Like for Apple
What the Future of Health Looks Like for Apple
Apple's Health app keeps evolving, with aspirations to be a complete combination personal data archive, medical liaison and insight engine. But the goals, while ambitious, aren't fully realized yet. iOS 16 and WatchOS 9 are adding medication management and multistage sleep tracking to a growing list of features. But what comes next, and will it start to become a tool that interfaces with doctors even more than it has?
Apple just published a multipage health report (PDF), which aims to detail where the company sees its health focus heading on the iPhone and the Apple Watch. The report covers the app, research studies and initiatives with medical organizations.
As Google prepares to release a Pixel Watch that will connect to Fitbit's features and services, Apple looks to be strengthening its position by expanding beyond the watch to a larger spectrum of health services. Already, Apple Health and Fitness Plus are evolving into services you don't need an Apple Watch to use.
When will Health start to become an extension of how I connect with my own doctors? Will sleep tracking offer a doorway to other health insights? And why doesn't Apple have its own equivalent of the "readiness score" used by Fitbit and Oura?
Apple's vice president of health, Dr. Sumbul Desai, spoke with CNET about the goals of Apple Health and where goals are being set next. She sees the blend of lifestyle with clinical data, medication data and an increasing number of metrics in one place as helping future insights in other health measurements over time.
"You have to do it in a really thoughtful and meaningful way," Desai said. "Because there are also correlations you can make that are incorrect. That's where the work is, making sure that when you make those connections that they are correct, grounded in the science and make sense to the user."
Medication tracking on iOS 16 looks like another step to bring medical histories onto Health.
Apple
Where does Apple Health meet your doctor?
As I've found over the last few months, over several surgeries and doctor visits, my own medical care doesn't often connect with my wearable and phone apps. Apple's been aiming to make strides to connect Apple Health with medical providers, but the framework isn't fully there yet for digital health platforms. A lot of Apple's promised benefits are in identifying long-term data patterns and insights.
"I do think how they interact with each other is really important," said Desai, who points to the new tracking of atrial fibrillation patterns over time in Watch OS 9. "We are actually taking how much time you're in AFib and correlating it to your lifestyle. How much you're sleeping. How much you're moving, you'll see the changes in AFib. If you're using Mindful Minutes, do you see a change."
Apple has tried making data sharing easier with doctors, but right now it still doesn't go far enough. At the medical group where I'm a patient, for instance, there's no obvious way to share the data I'm collecting in Apple Health through the patient portal.
Sleep tracking is gaining sleep stages in WatchOS 9. Will that bring a wave of other health insights down the road?
Apple
Sleep as the next frontier?
Apple's addition of sleep stage-based sleep tracking in the upcoming Watch OS 9 looks to close the gap on other fitness trackers like those from Fitbit, Samsung and Oura. Apple's been pulling new features for the Apple Watch from work in some of the company's ongoing heart research studies, and sleep could end up being a place that evolves next.
"What I'm really excited to learn from a scientific standpoint is, does the amount of sleep that you're getting in certain stages, like core [replenishing sleep], does that actually translate to benefit during the day when you're moving?" Desai said. "Are there certain phenotypes of certain people who have more benefit versus others? There's so much to tackle from a research standpoint there. We would never put anything out until we knew we kind of had some scientific grounding. The whole causation-correlation thing can get very tricky."
Desai suggested future research combining sleep stage data with Apple's ongoing heart and move data from its ongoing study will possibly provide more insights, "but we're still a ways away from that."
Could Apple ever develop its own readiness score?
One thing Apple's evolving and elaborate set of Health insights currently doesn't have is any sort of attempt at a distilled score, or personal health rating. Fitbit, Oura, and a number of other wearables have daily personal scores derived from a variety of individual metrics. I asked Desai whether Apple might pursue a similar idea anytime soon. While it sounds like a direction Apple Health could head in, it also seems like Apple is still trying to lock down the best path to get there.
"It's a really good question. I think the answer is, to be honest, is we don't have a firm POV yet," Desai said. "We want to understand the science behind that, and what can we understand and glean from a scientific standpoint."
Desai suggests that the health measurements, and their meanings, can vary. "HRV [heart rate variability] is a great metric. I'm super fascinated by HRV. But HRV can be changed based on multiple reasons." She suggested that Apple's eventual evolution of its insights will need to come with clear guidance, too.
"I think for us, we want to be able to provide actionable information. So to understand to do that, you actually have to be able to draw it back to, what we think is actually causing that? We are really trying to understand the science behind all of these different metrics and focus on how we provide insights that we know we can back up."
On whether Apple Health could come to other non-Apple devices
Apple's aiming for Health to be a comprehensive, secure system for anyone to use, but it still flows through Apple hardware, which means a portion of the population will always be left out. I asked Desai whether Apple Health might ever be available beyond iPhones.
"We're always looking at ways to support the ecosystem. We just want to make sure we can support that in a private and secure way. That's fundamentally what drives our decision making," Desai said. "We have a ton of things in the App Store ecosystem that are super interesting that people are doing, and we're very supportive of supporting that work.
"Honestly, we make a lot of decisions driven by privacy. And there's a lot of things we choose not to do and choose to do, based upon that."
The information contained in this article is for educational and informational purposes only and is not intended as health or medical advice. Always consult a physician or other qualified health provider regarding any questions you may have about a medical condition or health objectives.
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5 ways the world will change in 2022: CNET's predictions for the year ahead
5 ways the world will change in 2022: CNET's predictions for the year ahead
This story is part of The Year Ahead, CNET's look at how the world will continue to evolve starting in 2022 and beyond.
Even before the momentous events of 2020 and 2021 shook up the planet, the tectonic plates of culture, society and technology were already shifting and reshaping the world. The pandemic took those changes and accelerated them, exacerbated them, and in some cases, threw them into chaos.
As we speed into 2022, one question remains: Where are we headed next?
In tech, health, money, transportation, home and family life, we can be confident of one fact: Things are changing, fast. As in years past, CNET has its finger on the pulse of the ever evolving world and we're confident our CNET: The Year Ahead stories will help you navigate these choppy waters.
During this three-week series -- which will include CES -- we'll especially tackle five themes that will shape 2022.
1. The pandemic and the future of health
COVID-19 largely caught the world by surprise. When the World Health Organization declared the pandemic on March 11, 2020, few of us suspected that it would lead to two years of shutdowns, social distancing and disruptions. Things appeared to be normalizing in mid-2021, but then the Delta variant -- and later the Omicron variant -- touched off renewed shutdowns.
Will 2022 be the year that COVID-19 transitions from a pandemic to an endemic? That's what we're all hoping, of course, but there's no going back to 2019. For example, expect more of the world to follow Asia's lead, where people have been wearing masks in public for years if they were sick (out of courtesy to the people around them) or immunocompromised.
And, healthcare will never be the same post-pandemic. Expect telehealth to become commonplace now that a lot more people have been exposed to using video calls for health visits. And the COVID-19 vaccine will forever change the way vaccines (and potentially other therapies) are created. It's not unusual for vaccines to take a decade to develop, but these were created in 10 months using genetics and mRNA technology. This could prove to be one of the most important medical breakthroughs of the century.
2. Hybrid work and the 'Great Resignation'
Work and school were perhaps the most disrupted aspects of life during the pandemic. While schools largely returned in-person, work has been a far slower process. Many employees have decided that they prefer the work/life balance of remote work and many have migrated to be closer to family or moved farther away from city centers to have more space and fresh air.
Meanwhile, many employers have become infatuated with the productivity gains of remote work and the ability to scale down their commercial real estate holdings for significant cost savings.
The most surprising trend that's likely to continue to gain steam in 2022 is the Great Resignation. More people are quitting their jobs and reprioritizing their lives than ever -- CNET's Farnoosh Torabi even has advice. In December, the US Labor Department reported that the number of people quitting their jobs remains at record high levels. How could we go through something as jarring as the pandemic for the past two years and not be changed by it? The Great Resignation is just one example of how those changes are manifesting themselves.
3. Crypto, inflation and what's next for your finances
Money and personal finance also remain in the midst of tectonic shifts. In November, inflation hit its highest level since 1982 at 6.8%. The inflation of real estate and cars will be closely watched in 2022, after eye-watering numbers in 2021. The stock market's bull run looks likely to continue with interest rates at such low levels, but its volatile swings are getting more pronounced. There's a big question about whether tech and other growth stocks have run out of steam or are getting ready for another run.
Speaking of growth, cryptocurrencies have been breaking new highs and attracting more interest. The crypto exchange app Coinbase passed TikTok and YouTube to become the most downloaded app in Apple's App Store a couple times during 2021. Some view the world's most popular cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, as a hedge against inflation. Politicians, athletes and others started taking their paychecks in Bitcoin in 2021. We'll see if your employer will offer you that option in 2022.
4. Space, travel and the next internet
One of 2022's most dramatic developments is the new space race. China and Russia are collaborating on a future moon base (in 2030) as well as landing a robot on an asteroid (in 2024). Not to be outdone, NASA announced its next 10 future astronauts in December with ambitions for a future Moon mission.
Private space companies SpaceX, Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic all sent civilians into space in 2021, and they are all teasing the promise of a future of space tourism. Their ambitions will get bigger in 2022. This will be the year that SpaceX plans to put its Starship reusable rocket and space vehicle into flight for its first missions. Speaking about Starship, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said, "This is a profound revolution in access to orbit. There has never been a fully reusable, orbital launch vehicle. This is the holy grail of space technology. It is the fundamental breakthrough that is necessary for humanity to become a space-faring civilization."
Meanwhile, SpaceX's StarLink and Blue Origin and Amazon's Project Kuiper will launch thousands of low orbit satellites into the atmosphere in 2022. Their mission to bring fast, reliable broadband internet at a reasonable price to every corner of the planet is a welcome advance. But, the side effect is tons of space debris that could disrupt astronomers' telescopes, collide with spacecraft and create massive amounts of space junk. Apparently, they've never watched the movie Wall-E.
5. The EV has arrived -- and it means business
Electric vehicles, or EVs, are poised for a huge year in 2022 after a number of breakthroughs in 2021, including the Tesla Model 3 becoming the bestselling vehicle in Europe in September. The writing is on the wall for fossil fuel-burning vehicles. The US will discontinue purchases of gas-powered vehicles by 2035, the UK will do so by 2030 and a broader coalition of countries have set 2040 as a global date for ending fossil fuel vehicles.
Musk, also the CEO of Tesla, predicted that the Tesla Model Y compact SUV will become the bestselling vehicle worldwide in terms of revenue in 2022 -- beating out the Ford F-150 pickup and the Toyota Corolla compact. But the biggest EV story of 2022 is likely to be the transition in trucks, with the Chevy Silverado EV, Ford F-150 Lightning, Tesla Cybertruck and Rivian R1T dominating the headlines.
Consumers should also keep in mind that a gas-powered vehicle you buy today could have its resale value drop steeply in the years ahead as demand plummets because of people transitioning away from old combustion engine technology to EVs.
The future
The changes sweeping across the planet will not slow down in 2022, even if the COVID-19 pandemic finally recedes to become endemic. Beyond the five big themes mentioned above, CNET: The Year Ahead will cover a wide range of topics to help you get your head around what's coming.
We'll leave you with one last topic you should expect to hear a lot about in 2022: the metaverse. Plenty of us would love to step into a version of the holodeck from Star Trek, and it's hard not to notice the explosion of online gaming during the pandemic. But let's keep our metaverse expectations low for 2022. A lot of work needs to be done to build better virtual reality headsets and an ecosystem of truly immersive virtual worlds. If we get a few encouraging glimpses of the metaverse in 2022, we should count ourselves pretty happy.
§
Test pilots. Engineers. Physicists. A US National Team cyclist. A SpaceX flight surgeon. NASA announced its 2021 class of 10 future astronauts on Monday, and they're a diverse group of high achievers. NASA calls them the "Artemis generation" because they're likely to be heavily involved in future Artemis-program missions to the moon.
"The women and men selected for the new astronaut class represent the diversity of America and the career paths that can lead to a place in America's astronaut corps," the space agency said in a statement.
NASA's candidates, the first ones since 2017, were chosen out of a pool of over 12,000 applicants and received their official introductions during an event near the Johnson Space Center in Houston. You can watch the replay here:
The candidates will kick off two years of intensive training in January. They will learn how to operate equipment for the International Space Station, prepare for spacewalks, advance their robotic skills, learn or improve their Russian language and operate a training jet. The reward for all that work could be trips not just to orbit, but possibly all the way to the moon.
Nichole Ayers is a major in the US Air Force and a combat aviator with experience in the F-22 fighter jet. "Ayers led the first ever all-woman formation of the aircraft in combat," NASA said.
Marcos Berrios, also a major in the US Air Force, is from Puerto Rico. Berrios is a test pilot and aerospace engineer.
Christina Birch has a doctorate in biological engineering from MIT and is a track cyclist on the US National Team.
Deniz Burnham is a lieutenant in the US Navy and a former intern at NASA's Ames Research Center in California. Burnham has a background in mechanical engineering and experience as a drilling-projects manager.
This patriotic view shows an American flag with the SLS rocket at NASA's Kennedy Space Center. SLS will power the Artemis moon missions.
NASA/Frank Michaux
Luke Delaney is a retired major in the Marine Corps with experience as a naval aviator and test pilot. Delaney is familiar with NASA after having worked as a research pilot at the agency's Langley Research Center.
Andre Douglas has a collection of engineering degrees from multiple universities. "Douglas served in the US Coast Guard as a naval architect, salvage engineer, damage control assistant, and officer of the deck," NASA said.
Jack Hathaway, a Navy commander, is a distinguished aviator with "more than 2,500 flight hours in 30 types of aircraft."
Anil Menon also has an Air Force background and was SpaceX's first flight surgeon. "Menon is an actively practicing emergency medicine physician with fellowship training in wilderness and aerospace medicine," NASA said.
Christopher Williams is a medical physicist and researcher studying image guidance techniques for cancer treatments.
Jessica Wittner, a lieutenant commander in the Navy, spent her military career as an aviator and test pilot.
Most of the candidates are in their 30s. Delaney and Menon are in their 40s. NASA has stringent requirements for its future astronauts. They must be US citizens, pass a rigorous, long-duration flight astronaut physical, and hold a master's degree in a science, technology, engineering or math field, along with at least three years of related experience.
Each candidate spoke briefly during the event. Many of them talked about people who inspired them, the excitement of space exploration and the importance of teamwork. Berrios took a different route. He said he would like NASA to scale up the Ingenuity Mars helicopter to carry people, though that's probably a pipe dream.
NASA is hoping to launch its first uncrewed Artemis I test mission next year. Berrios may not get to fly a helicopter on Mars, but he might touch his boots down on the moon one day.
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What Is Net Metering and How Does It Work?
What Is Net Metering and How Does It Work?
If you're interested in setting up solar panels at your home, you've likely run into a number of new concepts when it comes to how utilities handle the electricity you'll generate. Perhaps you've run into the term "net metering" otherwise known as "net energy metering" or NEM, a concept unique to commercial and residential areas that generate their own electricity.
With solar panels, you can generate enough energy to provide electricity to your home and, sometimes, more than you can use or store. When that happens, you can sell that excess electricity to the utility company to distribute elsewhere along the power grid. That process is known as net metering.
How does net metering work?
In states that offer net metering (check here to see if your state qualifies), you can sell your excess solar energy back to your utility company in exchange for credits that offset the cost of your energy usage. You may generate excess solar power when it is clear and sunny out, but see less energy than is necessary to power your home when it is cloudy or rainy. By selling your excess energy back to the utility grid, you'll be able to use the credit to cover the cost for any electricity you need to use. You end up paying only for the "net" energy, or the difference between how much you sold and actually used.
The types of net metering
There are three different models of net metering, and which one is available to you may depend on your state and your utility provider.
Net metering
Net metering is the most common arrangement, and works by selling any surplus power generated by your solar panels to the utility operator in exchange for credits, which offset any electricity you may need to use from the grid. The credit is applied at the retail rate, which means the rate that you pay for electricity. Only one meter is required to track this, though your meter may need to be upgraded when you go solar.
Buy all/sell all
The buy all/sell all model works by selling 100% of the energy that your solar panels generate to the utility company. It is sold at wholesale price, which is cheaper for the purchases. In exchange, you get 100% of your home's energy from the utility company, which you pay the retail rate to use. This requires two separate meters, and you will pay the difference -- if any -- between the amount generated and the amount consumed. It's important to note that under this model, you do not directly consume any of the energy your solar panels generate.
Net billing
Much like net metering, the net billing model allows you to use the electricity generated by your solar panels and sell the excess to the utility company at retail price. Unlike the net metering model, though, you cannot bank credits for future billing cycles. This arrangement is more common for commercial situations than residential ones.
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What to consider when it comes to net metering types
In some cases you won't have a choice when it comes to the type of net energy metering arrangement, as utility companies may only offer one option. However, if you can choose, you'll want to keep in mind a couple things.
Net metering is the most common option for a reason: it's the simplest to understand. You get credits for energy sold and those credits are at retail price, meaning they are paid at the same rate that you pay for your electricity. That makes the math simple.
However, that doesn't mean it's the best deal available to you. If you're in a situation where you expect to generate a lot of electricity -- a region where it is sunny most of the time and there isn't much rain or cloud cover to interfere with your panels -- a buy all/sell all option may work better. While you'll be selling at a wholesale rate, meaning it is a lower rate for you since you are acting as a provider, you'll also be selling much more than you otherwise would. All of your solar power generation will be monetized, as opposed to just the excess.
You should also keep in mind other fees associated with net metering. For instance, you may have to pay a connection fee. This is a monthly expense that you pay for connecting to the utility company's grid. It typically isn't much, between $10-20 per month, but it is an expense to keep in mind.
No matter what arrangement ends up working best for you, net energy metering a great way to get the most out of your solar panels. Not only does it allow you to power your own house or pay for your full electricity use, but it also allows you to monetize your energy generation and let others make use of it.
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Facebook's outage also hit its AR and VR gadgets, making them temporarily half-blind
Facebook's outage also hit its AR and VR gadgets, making them temporarily half-blind
Midway through Facebook's full-day outage on Tuesday, I realized I needed to try getting into VR. I saw a few joke tweets suggesting people were trapped in the metaverse, and I thought to myself... what happens to an Oculus Quest when Facebook is down? Would Facebook's new camera-studded sunglasses still work? With Facebook's focus increasingly turned to a virtual and augmented reality-driven future of work and communication, amid all sorts of already-shaky problems with its platform, it's a question you might be having too.
The answer is: a weird and unfortunate mix. My Oculus headset still started up, and it still brought up a familiar virtual living room and showed me the list of apps I had installed. But Facebook's services underneath were gone. No app store. No avatars. No Facebook friends. Even the app icon graphics weren't loading.
But I could start games I had downloaded, no problem. I booted up Walkabout Mini Golf and played a hole or two; I even connected to randomly play with someone else online. I loaded Microsoft's Altspace VR and found a meditation class midsession, avatars floating around like everything was just fine.
The Oculus Quest 2, which requires a Facebook login to work, is sort of half in and half out of Facebook's cloud universe. A lot of the Quest is an Android-based piece of hardware that downloads apps and works like a game console. But what happens when Facebook's always-connected ties extend even further through the Oculus OS, when Facebook's dream of a metaverse layer of software becomes possibly the replacement to apps as we know them now? What happens when Facebook finally makes the cloud-connected, AI-driven AR glasses it is on a clear trajectory to deliver this decade?
I put Facebook's newest Ray-Ban smart glasses on my face next -- the photo-taking, audio-connected sunglasses released last month -- but I didn't get very far. The Facebook-connected app on my phone, which is the only place the glasses can download its photos and videos to, wouldn't log in. I was locked out. I was also locked out of my photos.
To be clear: App- and cloud-connected devices and services (and the inherent problems) aren't unique to Facebook. Try using a PlayStation 5 or Xbox Series X when the PlayStation Network or Xbox Live are down. Some parts work, others don't. Try using Netflix or Disney Plus during an outage. So many services we use are cloud-based now. We're used to putting our lives somewhere else; always-on wearables are no different. Some parts will work, no doubt, and others won't. Facebook's glasses don't need to be online to take photos and video -- but they need that phone app to share them.
There are plenty of sci-fi books that have imagined a coming apocalypse of half-collapsed infrastructures: Tim Maughan's Infinite Detail is a great starting point. In that book, a rebel community in the UK has decided to take down a grid of smart tech, which causes the world to reboot and learn to live without the familiar shrouds of assisted tech.
Every time there's a power outage or cellular networks go down, we rediscover this feeling and wonder about our reliance on Google, on phones, on all our social networks. The future of AR and VR doesn't necessarily need to feel this way: Lots of existing hardware can use on-device processing to handle VR graphics or AR effects, so they'll work even when there's no online connection. That needs to remain the case.
Also, having multiple companies as providers for apps and social networks is key. Altspace VR working while Oculus was down is a great reminder that Facebook should never be the sole source of the metaverse (nor will it).
Right now, mission-critical computers and phones still work during network outages. Or, at least, some features do. It's a reminder to keep local files, not be too reliant on any one company for your communication or work needs (Google outages and working in Google Drive, for instance). And the future of VR and AR, if it's ever going to progress to be an essential part of our lives, needs to be the same.
And, sure, most companies are super cloud-based in the year 2021. Powerful data centers are what will keep AR glasses small, no doubt, and there's no way to really easily think about a cloud-free computing life in the next 10 years. Most major players imagine a further reliance on cloud services: 5G and advanced graphics rendering, and shared world maps and locations.
And yet, clearly, having everything run through a few key players doesn't seem like a great solution.
Now that everything Facebook is back and Oculus Quest 2 is back to normal, I keep thinking about what wasn't working the day before... and why that's a good snapshot of what needs to be fixed before VR and AR progress any further.
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These Technologies Could Play a Big Role in the iPhone's Future
These Technologies Could Play a Big Role in the iPhone's Future
Social distancing during the height of the pandemic in 2020 was challenging for Lucy Edwards, a blind journalist and broadcaster based in the UK. So she tried the iPhone's People Detection feature, which uses the iPhone 12 Pro's and 13 Pro's lidar sensor to detect when other people are nearby and calculate their distance from the user.
"I'm going to have to get used to it, but I'm really excited that I can be in control again," Edwards said in a BBC video from 2020 documenting her experience.
Lidar, or light detection and ranging, is just one example of how the technology inside the iPhone has evolved in the last 15 years. When the first iPhone launched, on June 29, 2007, it had a 3.5-inch screen that would be considered minuscule by today's standards and a single 2-megapixel camera. Now Apple's most sophisticated phones come equipped with triple-rear cameras that are advanced enough to shoot films, sensors that help people like Edwards navigate the world and powerful chips with billions of transistors. We're expecting to learn about what's next for the iPhone at Apple's upcoming event on Sept. 7.
The iPhone often served as a catalyst for the technologies introduced within, whether it's digital assistant Siri, mobile payments or wireless charging, and helped drive the evolution of how we live our mobile lives. But in the future, the most important part of the iPhone might be everything around it. That's according to analysts who've observed the mobile industry's general trends and Apple's strategy.
In the short term, we're likely to see incremental improvements like higher quality cameras and giant displays. But over the next decade, the iPhone could evolve into a hub for smart glasses and other devices. AirPods, Apple Watches and CarPlay-enabled vehicles may be just the start. The iPhone's core elements, like its display and charging systems, are also expected to get a significant boost.
"The next quest for the smartphone is to figure out what it will connect to next," said Runar Bjørhovde, an analyst with market research firm Canalys. "Because the smartphone has not necessarily reached its potential yet, but as a standalone device I think the smartphone is getting closer and closer to the edge."
Your iPhone at the center of everything
There's plenty of speculation about what's next after the smartphone. The resounding consensus seems to be smart glasses, with companies like Meta, Snap and Google all working on their own version of high-tech spectacles.
Apple is no exception; reports from Bloomberg indicate that the iPhone maker could debut a mixed reality headset this year or next that supports augmented and virtual reality technologies. A pair of AR-powered smart glasses could arrive later this decade, according to the report.
So what does this have to do with the iPhone? Possibly everything. Even though Apple's headset is expected to function as a standalone device, the apps and services it runs would likely stem from the iPhone.
Think of the Apple Watch. It doesn't need a nearby iPhone to function, but a large part of its appeal involves its ability to sync closely with Apple's phone. Many of the Apple Watch's notifications are also tied to accounts and apps that were set up on the iPhone.
Whether it's a smart headset, the Apple Watch, AirPods or HomeKit-enabled appliances, analysts expect the phone to remain at the center.
The iPhone will likely remain at the center of the Apple experience, serving as a hub for AirPods, the Apple Watch and possibly a pair of smart glasses one day.
Scott Stein/CNET
"The phone will be the anchor," said Gene Munster, managing partner for tech investment firm Loup Ventures and a longtime Apple analyst.
But it isn't just about connecting to new personal tech gadgets. Apple is gradually turning the iPhone into a viable replacement for the wallet, weaving it even more tightly into the nondigital aspects of our lives.
Apple has made a lot of progress on this front over the past year by rolling out new features like digital IDs for Apple Wallet and Tap to Pay, which turns the iPhone into a contactless payment terminal for merchants without additional hardware. Apple also just announced Apple Pay Later, which lets Apple Pay users split a purchase into four equal installments paid over the course of six weeks.
"It's clear that there's a lot of momentum within financial services with Apple, and I think we will see further advancements there," said Nick Maynard, head of research for Juniper Research.
Better lidar, more advanced AI for better spatial awareness
Making educated guesses about Apple's general direction for the iPhone is certainly easier than pinpointing specific changes that might be coming. But analysts have some ideas based on the seeds Apple has planted in current iPhones.
Lidar will likely continue to be important as the company pushes more deeply into augmented reality. Apple added lidar on the iPhone 12 Pro in 2020 to boost the performance of AR apps, enable new camera tricks and facilitate accessibility features like the aforementioned People Detection. The technology measures distance by determining how long it takes for light to reflect off an object and bounce back.
Yet the iPhone's current lidar sensors might not be sophisticated enough to bring Apple's augmented reality ambitions to fruition, said Munster.
"Specifically what needs to happen is the mapping of the real world needs to be more accurate," said Munster, whose firm conducts research on topics like augmented reality, autonomous vehicles and virtual reality. "And until that happens, AR isn't really going to happen."
The iPhone's People Detection feature uses lidar.
James Martin/CNET
Lidar improves the iPhone's depth-sensing skills, but it's still up to the phone's processor to make sense of all that data. Apple has leaned into artificial intelligence -- one of Silicon Valley's favorite buzzwords in recent years -- to give the iPhone and other products more context about users and their surroundings.
Once again, you can look to the Apple Watch to see this approach at work. Apple's smartwatch uses artificial intelligence and data gathered from its sensors for tasks such as tracking your sleep and noticing when you're washing your hands.
Hanish Bhatia, a senior analyst for Counterpoint Research, provided a hypothetical example of how AI improvements could one day manifest in upcoming iPhones. He envisions a future in which Apple's smartphone can observe a person's habits to understand whether the phone's primary user or a family member may be using the device.
"The way you use your phone, at what angle your smartphone is tilted ... Do you press with a particular pressure, or do you just tap it with your nails or something like that?" he said as an example. "All of these are different types of behaviors which are very unique to a user."
Bhatia's example is speculative and doesn't reflect Apple's actual plans. But with advancements in AI and technologies like lidar and ultra wideband giving the iPhone more spatial awareness, it's easy to imagine a scenario like this.
Displays and charging tech could get a big change
Perhaps one of the biggest questions surrounding Apple's future smartphone plans is whether the company will ever create a foldable iPhone. Samsung, Apple's biggest rival in the mobile space, has already launched several generations of phones with flexible designs. Motorola, Huawei and Microsoft have all followed suit, and Google is rumored to be working on a bendable Pixel. Shipments of foldable smartphones are said to have increased by 264.3% in 2021 compared with 2020, according to The International Data Corporation.
But experts like Munster and Maynard are skeptical about whether Apple will take a similar approach. Though the tech giant has filedpatents for mobile devices with flexible displays, those filings aren't always indicative of Apple's plans. Sales of foldable phones have been growing, but shipments still pale in comparison with regular smartphones. (Research firm IDC estimates that 7.1 million foldable phones were shipped in 2021 compared with 362.4 million phones shipped in just the fourth quarter of last year). And then there's the question of whether foldable devices bring anything truly new or meaningful to the smartphone experience.
There are also challenges with creating a true glass screen that's foldable, says Munster. Samsung's Galaxy Z Flip has a glass screen, but that glass is also combined with "a special material" to "achieve a consistent hardness," CNET reported in 2020.
"The piece that's missing from my perspective is how [Apple] would actually do it," Munster said.
Samsung's Galaxy Z Flip 3 can fold in half.
Sarah Tew/CNET
The iPhone's charging experience is probably due for an upgrade too. Between USB-C, Lightning and MagSafe, it isn't an exaggeration to say that Apple's charging options are complicated. Maynard believes pressure from the European Union and US senators could mean a switch to USB-C might be in the iPhone's future.
But more dramatic changes could also be in the pipeline. Rumors about a completely portlessiPhone have swirled for years, and Maynard doesn't think it's totally out of the question.
"I suspect if any vendor was going to launch a fully portless system, then it probably would be Apple," said Maynard, citing Apple's decision to remove the iPhone's headphone jack in 2016.
Wireless charging has also been a focal point for Apple in recent years, further supporting the case for a port-free iPhone. There's Apple's relatively new MagSafe chargers, and many CarPlay-enabled vehicles also support wireless connections. Apple has also patented wireless charging systems that would be built directly into MacBooks, enabling Apple's laptops to charge iPhones, Apple Watches and iPads. The iPad Pro's Smart Connector also provides a quick and easy way to attach accessories to Apple's tablet without a port.
"The number of systems that actually 100% must have a cable are diminishing," Maynard said.
Apple's MagSafe battery pack wirelessly connects to the back of an iPhone.
Patrick Holland/CNET
Otherwise, analysts expect to see routine upgrades to the camera in the near term. Munster says there's room for improvement in the iPhone's front-facing camera, while Bhatia expects Apple to continue to use display size and camera quality to distinguish the regular iPhones from its Pro iPhones.
It's impossible to know what's next for the iPhone without Apple's input. But experts seem certain on one thing: Apple is laying the groundwork for the iPhone's future today. Current iPhone features, like Apple's lidar-powered accessibility tools meant to help people like Edwards, could provide a clue about what's ahead.
"Everything we can see that they've done over the last few years is a good hint of what's coming up next," said Bjørhovde. "Because a lot of what I think they do is setting themselves up for the systems they want to integrate the iPhone into in the years to come."
What States Can and Can't Do When Banning Abortion
What States Can and Can't Do When Banning Abortion
For more information about your reproductive health rights and related federal resources, you can visit the US government's
Reproductive Rights
site.
Whether someone can get an abortion or related medical procedure mostly hinges on which state they live in after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last month and ended the constitutional right to abortion. But the switch from federal protection to state law isn't straightforward and has led to confusion and misinformation on what pregnant patients and physicians can do.
In this still developing landscape, how confident can people be that their treatment is still legal?
"The answer to all your questions is 'Who the heck knows,'" said Dr. Louise Perkins King, a surgeon and bioethicist at Harvard Medical School. "And that's the problem."
The US Department of Health and Human Services issued guidance on July 11 reminding physicians of their responsibilities under the existing Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act, or EMTLA, which supports the need to treat and stabilize patients in an emergency, including pregnant patients who may require an abortion. Days later, Texas sued the Biden administration over the law, which allows for medical assistance to save the life of the mother, because, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said, it "seeks to transform every emergency room in the country into a walk-in abortion clinic."
On Tuesday, a judge in Texas blocked the EMTLA guidance, so physicians in that state may no longer be protected by federal law if they perform an abortion when they deem it medically necessary but it falls outside of Texas' interpretation of a life-endangering pregnancy. Physicians nationwide who are members of the American Association of Pro-Life Gynecologists and Obstetricians or the Christian Medical and Dental Association are also exempt -- a total of about 18,000 health care providers, according to the court document.
Texas' new trigger law -- which will be in effect on Aug. 25 -- bans all abortions except when the pregnancy puts the mother "at risk of death or poses a serious risk of substantial impairment of a major bodily function." Physicians who perform an illegal abortion will be committing a felony. It doesn't make exceptions for rape, incest or fetal abnormalities, and it also doesn't make an exception for when the pregnant person's risk of death would come from a "claim or diagnosis" that they'll be hurt or might die in the future. (This could be interpreted to mean a doctor can't provide an abortion if a woman threatens to die by suicide because she has depression.) All abortions are currently banned in Texas after the state's Supreme Court ruled that a law from the 1920s could stand.
Legal battles within some states will continue to shape post-Roe America, with the landscape changing by the day. And lawsuits like the one in Texas clarify the country's stance on whether state law preempts federal rule on abortion or reproductive health care. Basically, can federal regulations trump state law?
"There's going to be cases that are going to have to determine this question," I. Glenn Cohen, a professor and bioethicist at Harvard Law School, said.
The argument over medication abortion access -- which is banned or restricted in many states but still available to people if they order it (not without risk) online -- will likely also be one of the first big court cases post-Roe, Cohen said. Questions of whether federal regulations on medication abortion conflict directly enough with state restrictions will continue to be center stage.
Medication abortion, for use in early pregnancy, accounts for more than half of abortions in the US. Restricting the pills is the new frontier of abortion bans.
Robyn Beck/Getty Images
Other federal guidance issued by the Biden administration includes a reminder to pharmacists that they are required to fill medication and birth control prescriptions for patients. Failing to do so is discrimination based on pregnancy status. This was in response to the many reports of women having treatment delayed or prescriptions denied while health care workers try to navigate around new state laws.
Here's what we know today.
Can states ban abortion pills? Not completely, but some are trying.
Any state with a current total ban on abortion -- including Texas, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Alabama, Arkansas, Mississippi, Missouri and Wisconsin -- also bans medication abortion. Heavy restrictions in other states, including Tennessee and South Carolina, which ban abortion after about six weeks, also extend to medication abortion. This means providers can't prescribe the medication in those states and patients can't fill prescriptions at pharmacies.
"If a state law bans abortion broadly, that includes medication abortions," Elisabeth Smith, director of state policy and advocacy at the Center for Reproductive Rights, told MedPage Today.
But abortion bans and state laws seek to punish abortion providers or people who assist them, not the person seeking the abortion (there's reason to believe this might change in the future). For now, people living in the most restrictive states can still order pills from an overseas pharmacy, including Aid Access. However, the pills could take awhile to arrive and potentially put the person past the point of pregnancy for which the medication is safe and effective (about 10 weeks).
Peter Dazeley/Getty Images
The fate of medication abortion pills in Republican-leaning states centers on mifepristone, the first pill given in the two-dose regimen of medication abortion. Because the US Food and Drug Administration approved mifepristone as a safe and effective way to end a pregnancy over 20 years ago, states shouldn't be able to restrict it, the US attorney general's office argued the same day Roe was overturned. (Misoprostol, the second pill, is used off-label for abortion and miscarriage treatment. It's also used to treat health conditions such as stomach ulcers.)
Whether this federal regulation (and the FDA's stamp of approval) supersedes state laws will need to be decided. Cohen said this is likely to be determined by the Supreme Court as "one of the first post-Dobbs cases."
"It's unclear whether that's going to be a winner of an argument, to be perfectly honest," Cohen said.
Last year, the FDA extended a pandemic-era rule that allowed patients to get medication abortion pills through the mail, instead of requiring them to be prescribed in person. This was seen as a victory for the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and other medical groups, which viewed the in-person requirement as unnecessary for a medication that's safe and effective in early pregnancy.
But states have their own requirements for medication abortion, and providers licensed in Montana can't prescribe pills to patients who travel over from a restrictive state like South Dakota, NPR reported.
Read more: Worries About Post-Roe Data Privacy Put Spotlight on Period Apps
Ectopic pregnancies can't result in a delivery and require medical treatment. Symptoms can start with typical pregnancy signs, including a missed period, but can progress to abdominal or pelvic pain, vaginal bleeding, weakness and more.
Svetlana Gustova/Getty Images
Can states ban treatment for high risk pregnancies? The HHS says no, but doctors say state laws are restricting care.
Even though the most restrictive states banning abortions leave room for some degree of medical emergency, practicing physicians need to decide where the medical emergency line is – and risk prosecution if a state sees it differently.
This month, the story of a 10-year-old girl who was raped and pregnant and who traveled to Indiana from Ohio, where abortion is banned around six weeks without exception for rape or incest, made headlines. Not only was the physician publicly questioned by Indiana's attorney general on whether she followed state law, but Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost said in the aftermath that the girl should've been able to legally get an abortion under the state law's medical emergency exemption. Ohio's OB-GYNs disagreed.
"It states specifically 'medically diagnosed condition,' and as far as I can tell, adolescent pregnancy is not a medically diagnosed condition that's listed," Dr. Jason Sayat, a Columbus OB-GYN, told the Ohio Capital Journal.
The Department of Health and Human Services reminded physicians and hospitals that if they want to keep their Medicare agreement and avoid "civil penalties," they must treat pregnant patients and provide abortions if necessary as required under the 1986 Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act. The EMTLA, now blocked in Texas, outlines certain life-endangering pregnancies that doctors must treat regardless of state law, including ectopic pregnancies, preeclampsia and complications of pregnancy loss.
But that narrow line of abortion exceptions for medical emergencies given by states like Wisconsin is what's troubling Dr. Jennifer McIntosh, a maternal-fetal medicine physician practicing in the state. While Wisconsin's attorney general said he wouldn't enforce a ban, physicians there stopped performing abortions because the state has a pre-Roe criminal statute that prohibits most abortions. The "save the life of the mother" abortion exception language in that law can leave out health conditions which may not be an immediate emergency but can become one down the line.
"Some of what we do is to prevent emergencies from happening," McIntosh said. "To have to wait for an emergency to actually appear puts your patient's life at risk."
The treatment for an ectopic pregnancy is termination, because terminating the pregnancy is the only safe outcome when an embryo grows outside of the uterus, typically in a fallopian tube. Without treatment, the fallopian tube is likely to rupture, which can lead to internal bleeding and death. But some laws, like one in Texas, specifically restrict medications including methotrexate, which has led to access problems for people who are pregnant as well as people who are taking methotrexate for another health reason.
Complicating confusion and risk over how abortion bans will affect treatments for ectopic pregnancies is the fact that more rare types of ectopic pregnancies exist, including ones where the pregnancy is growing inside a C-section scar or other area outside the safety of the main cavity of the uterus -- but still technically in the uterus. These rarer kinds of ectopic pregnancies are also life-threatening, and may be more difficult to diagnose and treat as such in a state that bans abortions with an emphasis on the pregnancy being in the uterus.
Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images
States are not prosecuting people who have abortions (yet)
Current state laws -- both those in effect and those in limbo in court -- prosecute other people involved in an abortion, not the person who's pregnant.
But the health impact may be already felt when a doctor is hesitant to treat patients, or pharmacists are reluctant to fill a prescription for mifepristone before interviewing a woman to ascertain whether her pregnancy is already ended and her situation is in line with state law.
"Even in these straightforward cases of basic OB/GYN practice, the laws leave providers questioning and afraid," Dr. Carley Zeal, an OB-GYN in Wisconsin, told The New York Times. "These laws are already hurting my patients."
Aside from hesitancy among health care providers, physicians also fear that worries people have about being prosecuted for having an abortion or miscarriage will stop patients experiencing complications from any kind of pregnancy loss from seeking care.
That's because it was already happening, before Roe was overturned. According to the National Advocates for Pregnant Women, there were over 1,700 arrests or prosecutions of women from 1973 (when Roe became law) to 2020 where their pregnancies were the focus of the case against them.
So will doctors report you if they suspect you had an abortion?
"The vast majority of health care professionals will not do that, because that's not caring for their patients," King said. But, she added, "I'm sure there's a very small, but unfortunately detrimental, minority who might."
Your current access to birth control shouldn't be impacted by the overturn of Roe v. Wade. However, there's reason to believe that could change in the future.
Carol Yepes/Getty Images
Birth control is still protected under the Affordable Care Act
Right now, IUDs, birth control pills and other birth control methods are legal in all 50 states. And they should also be covered at no out-of-pocket cost for those covered under the Affordable Care Act. The right to birth control is protected under two Supreme Court rulings: Griswold v. Connecticut (1965) and Eisenstadt v. Baird. (Another Supreme Court Case, Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores, chipped away a little of that protection, however, finding that some corporations are exempt for religious reasons.)
Plan B or "morning after pill" brands are also not included in abortion bans, because they will not end an existing pregnancy. Most health plans should also cover them.
Legislators in Missouri last year voted to block taxpayer funding for IUDs and emergency contraception, casting doubt that all birth control devices will be protected indefinitely, at least in some states. The claims of legislators like Paul Wieland, a Republican state senator in Missouri, are that anything that has the potential to disrupt a fertilized egg's implantation into the uterus is an abortifacient.
The medical community has been clear that IUDs and emergency contraception do not cause abortions and will not end an existing pregnancy. Copper IUDs work mostly by causing a chemical change in the sperm and egg before they meet, according to the World Health Organization. Hormonal IUDs like Mirena work mostly by thickening cervical mucus so sperm can't reach the egg, and can also prevent ovulation. Plan B and similar pills likely won't work if a person has already ovulated, meaning the chances of it stopping implantation are currently understood to be slim.
Nevertheless, unlikely occurrences or instances where a fertilized egg may be prevented from implanting into a uterus could be called into question in future court cases.
Read more: Could a Post Roe v. Wade World Impact Your Access to Birth Control?
The information contained in this article is for educational and informational purposes only and is not intended as health or medical advice. Always consult a physician or other qualified health provider regarding any questions you may have about a medical condition or health objectives.
