Health Care
Abortion, contraceptive access among Alliance Defending Freedom’s lawsuits
Nearly a dozen of Alliance Defending Freedom’s ongoing lawsuits involve abortion and contraceptive access. Here is a look at those cases. Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine v. U.S. Food and Drug Administration. ADF represents anti-abortion activist medical groups (three states have recently filed motions to intervene in the case) and is asking the U.S. Supreme Court […]
Anti-abortion attorneys ascend federal government ranks with Christian right legal training
When Mississippi Solicitor General Scott G. Stewart presented Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization to the U.S. Supreme Court in December 2021, he argued that state lawmakers should be able to ban abortion at any time in pregnancy, not just after so-called “viability,” the point where a fetus could survive outside of a uterus. The […]
Being Black and pregnant in the Deep South can be a dangerous combination
O’laysha Davis was a few weeks shy of her due date when in mid-August she decided it was time to switch doctors. Davis had planned to give birth at a small community hospital about 20 minutes from her home in North Charleston, South Carolina. But that changed when her medical team started repeatedly calling her […]
Louisiana has removed 197,000 people from Medicaid over five months
Louisiana removed 197,000 people from its Medicaid rolls over a five-month period from June to October, as it complies with renewed federal standards for the government-backed insurance. About a quarter of the people dropped, or 47,000, are children. Two-thirds of the individuals cut have lost their health insurance for “procedural reasons,” including not filling out […]
Some Republicans supported abortion ban exceptions. Activists made sure they failed.
State Rep. Taylor Rehfeldt was speaking on the floor of the South Dakota Capitol, four months pregnant with her third child, begging her Republican colleagues to care about her life. “With the current law in place, I will tell you, I wake up fearful of my pregnancy and what it would mean for my children, […]
Evolving overdose crisis shakes previously effective treatments
BURLINGTON, Vermont — “You can’t inject a horse tranquilizer and think nothing bad is gonna happen” to you, said Ty Sears, 33, a longtime drug user now in recovery. Sears was referring to xylazine, a sedative used for animal surgeries that has infiltrated the illicit drug supply across the country, contributing to a steady climb […]
Anti-abortion groups shrug off election losses, look to courts, statehouses for path forward
Anti-abortion groups are firing off a warning shot for 2024: We’re not going anywhere. Their leaders say they’re undeterred by recent election setbacks and plan to plow ahead on what they’ve done for years, including working through state legislatures, federal agencies, and federal courts to outlaw abortion. And at least one prominent anti-abortion group is […]
New Tulane study connects abortion, maternal health care access with birth outcomes
NEW ORLEANS — A study published last week by Tulane University researchers found that people living in areas lacking both abortion and maternity health care were more likely to give birth prematurely than those with more reproductive health services. While previous studies have documented adverse birth outcomes for those who live far from abortion clinics […]
The ‘doctor of nursing practice’ will see you now
When Vernon Langford sees patients, he typically wears a white lab coat with his title — “Dr.” — and his credentials as a nurse practitioner stitched on the front. “My credentials are on any jackets I have, the shirts I wear. If I have a name tag, it’s on that,” said Langford, who works as […]
VA veterans crisis line to face new investigation by congressional watchdog agency
WASHINGTON — The Government Accountability Office plans to investigate multiple whistleblower allegations of “gross mismanagement” at the Department of Veterans Affairs veterans crisis line, following a request from Kansas Republican Sen. Jerry Moran, States Newsroom has learned. Moran, ranking member on the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee, sent a letter to the VA secretary this week […]
Underdiagnosed and undertreated, young Black males with ADHD get left behind
As a kid, Wesley Jackson Wade should have been set up to succeed. His father was a novelist and corporate sales director and his mother was a special education teacher. But Wade said he struggled through school even though he was an exceptional writer and communicator. He played the class clown when he wasn’t feeling […]
Veterans’ health care coverage expanded by Biden administration
Ahead of Veterans Day, Biden administration officials said Friday the Department of Veterans Affairs will expand health care coverage for certain groups of veterans and their families and create new programs meant to make care more accessible. The VA will make coverage of certain toxic burn pit-related conditions available sooner than anticipated. Family members of […]