A Cheap Pill Can Prevent Preeclampsia. Most Women at Risk Aren’t Taking It.

In 2017, a landmark trial called ASPRE showed that low-dose aspirin, started before 16 weeks of pregnancy, reduced the risk of preterm preeclampsia by 62% in high-risk women.

Every year in the United States, about 1 in 25 pregnancies is complicated by preeclampsia. Worldwide, it kills more than 70,000 mothers and 500,000 babies annually. And yet we have something that actually helps prevent it — a pill that costs pennies, sits on every pharmacy shelf, and has stronger evidence behind it than most things in obstetrics.

That pi…