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Washington Post
07-07-2025
- Politics
- Washington Post
History shows there is no ‘right time' for civil rights litigation
Kevin Jennings is the chief executive of Lambda Legal and co-counsel in U.S. v. Skrmetti. Following the recent Supreme Court ruling in U.S. v. Skrmetti upholding Tennessee's restrictions on transgender youths' access to health care, Monday morning quarterbacks have criticized our decision to litigate the matter. These critiques ignore our nation's history, which teaches a basic fact: It is never the right time for civil rights in America.
Yahoo
06-07-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
The GOP's new bill is structural racism at its deadliest
Let's call the Republicans' so-called 'big beautiful bill' what it is: a legislative double-barreled shotgun aimed at the bodies of women, especially Southern women and women who are Black, brown and low-income. One barrel blasts Medicaid access. The other guts Planned Parenthood. The result? A deliberate attempt to kill reproductive freedom, strip women of their basic dignity and destroy what progress this region has made in maternal health outcomes. This isn't just policy. It's punishment. Cutting Medicaid while attacking Planned Parenthood isn't fiscal responsibility. It's a targeted cruelty that hurts women nationwide. But particularly for women in the South — where health systems are already under-resourced, rural clinics are vanishing and maternal mortality rates are similar to those in developing nations — it's nothing short of a death sentence for them and their babies. Let's talk facts. In 2023 in Mississippi, 57% of births were covered by Medicaid. In Louisiana, it was 64%. These aren't just statistics. These are lives — sisters, daughters, mothers and aunties — trying to survive a system designed to abandon them. In many rural ZIP codes, Planned Parenthood is the only accessible provider of cancer screenings, contraception, prenatal maternal care and postpartum care. Gutting its funding while simultaneously choking Medicaid is like setting fire to the only lifeboat in a flood. Let's be even more real: If you are a woman living in rural Louisiana, Mississippi, Arkansas or Alabama, this bill doesn't just inconvenience your access to care. It incinerates it. In rural Southern counties, hospitals have shut down their labor and delivery units in droves. Some counties don't have a single practicing OB-GYN. That's not a policy failure — that's an egregious policy choice being carried out with surgical precision. Imagine being six months pregnant, with no car and no public transit and with the closest provider two hours away — if it's even taking Medicaid patients. That's not health care. That's sanctioned neglect. Rural women — especially Black, Indigenous and Latina women — have been treated like afterthoughts for generations. But now, they're being treated like collateral damage in a culture war they didn't ask to be in. This is structural racism at is deadliest. If you're a lawmaker who's gutting access to women's reproductive while smiling for photo ops at church on Sunday, understand this: Every rural woman who dies from a preventable complication, every baby born undernourished because its mother couldn't access prenatal care, every ZIP code that loses a clinic because of these budget cuts is your fault. These attacks aren't incidental. They are ideological. They are part of a long game to control women's bodies while criminalizing their autonomy — especially in Black and brown communities. It's no coincidence that the same states eager to shred Medicaid expansion are the ones leading the charge against abortion rights, denying gender-affirming care to trans youths and standing opposed to the very notion of care as a public good. That's exactly why we released 'Shift the South,' groundbreaking report rooted in the lived realities and leadership of women and girls of color across the American South. It maps the merciless, maniacal movement to suppress autonomy, erase reproductive justice and underfund communities into silence. But it also lifts up the blueprint for transformation — investing in Southern women as agents of change, not casualties of policy. It's more than data — it's our declaration. And in the face of cruelty disguised as governance, we offer clarity, courage and counterstrategy. What's left when the clinic closes, the OB-GYN relocates and the Medicaid card is worthless? Silence. Suffering. Stillbirths. We've been here before. But we refuse to die quietly this time. At the Women's Foundation of the South, we refuse to act as if women are disposable. We know that maternal health, reproductive access and community wellness aren't luxuries — they are basic rights. This bill? It's not just bad policy. It's a betrayal. We will fight it — not just with data and dollars, but with the righteous rage of every grandmother who buried a daughter too soon, every mother who had to drive 200 miles for care and every young girl growing up in a state that sees her more as a womb than a whole human being. Republicans Thursday passed their bill that cuts Medicaid and defunds Planned Parenthood, and Friday, President Trump signed it into law. They should all be aware, though, of the rage they've unleashed in women — in the South and across the country — who don't plan to sit around silently and die. This article was originally published on
ABC News
26-06-2025
- Health
- ABC News
GP shortages continue to disadvantage people in remote WA despite government efforts
A new report has revealed WA's North West faces the greatest challenge with doctor shortages of anywhere in the state, while local governments in other remote areas are campaigning for the federal government to cover the costs to retain GP services. For the third consecutive year, the Pilbara had the highest proportional movement of GPs out of the region, losing 23.4 per cent of its workforce, according to Rural Health West's report. Further north in the Kimberley region, there has been an 8.1 per cent drop in GPs, and had the lowest number of doctors move into the area. Aboriginal Health Service GP Fiona Cleary in Roebourne, 1,500 kilometres north of Perth, said they had to close a pop-up medical clinic in nearby Karratha for several weeks due to a lack of staff. "Not having access to GPs then puts a second pressure onto the hospital, so then they get all the patients coming in with GP stuff, not emergency stuff," Dr Cleary said. She said access to childcare and the cost of living in the Pilbara contributed to the high turnover rate. The median cost of a rental in Karratha is $1,183 a week, according to a May CoreLogic report. While Dr Cleary's rent is partially subsidised through her organisation, she said it would "definitely deter" her from staying in the region if she had to pay the full price in Karratha. City of Karratha Mayor Daniel Scott said affordable housing continued to be the biggest barrier to attracting health professionals, with nearby towns like Wickham "desperate" for GPs. He said the shire was creating a new housing policy for GPs and allied health services, after a fund supporting GPs recently expired. Dr Cleary's colleague, Aaron Donald, said the high turnover disadvantaged the community's wellbeing. "It can break down care because you don't have the flow of knowing the history, knowing what's been tried before," Dr Donald said. "If you're only here for a year or two, that's a fairly limited amount of time to try to build a relationship where patients trust you". The Kimberley's regional hub of Broome has seen a clinic close, with no prospect of it reopening. The Broome Doctors Practice was vacated last week after closing its doors suddenly in February, leaving patients in the lurch. At the time, Spectrum Health chief executive Philip Coelho was optimistic the clinic would reopen later this year in a newly built surgery. But Mr Coelho confirmed the practice will not be relaunched, citing difficulties in getting doctors to regional areas. "We have removed everything and handed the practice back to the landlord," he said. "The simple reason is because we don't have doctors, or a supervisor, who will go up there." In Western Australia's south, the proportion of GPs leaving the region was lower than in the Pilbara at 13.5 per cent. Six local governments have an alliance to draw attention to the amount they are having to pay to attract GPs to the remote areas and want the federal government to cover the costs. The local governments of Gnowangerup, Jerramungup, Kojonup, Narembeen, Lake Grace, and Ravensthorpe collectively contribute about $1.5 million annually towards GP services. That is not including housing, vehicles, and buildings for the surgeries. The Shire of Narembeen has fewer than 1,000 people, and in the 2023–24 financial year spent $305,000 or 16 per cent of the income from its rates to recruit GPs. Over the same period, the Shire of Lake Grace, with a population of about 1,200 people, paid $250,000 amounting to 7.3 per cent of the rates income. Shire president Len Armstrong said the money should be coming from the federal government. "It takes money away from our core business of providing infrastructure and community structures for our communities," he said. Rural Doctors Association of Western Australia president Clark Wasiun said financial incentives were not the only factor in recruiting GPs. "It's not about throwing money at the doctors," Dr Wasiun said. "If there's better infrastructure in some of these towns, and the most obvious one that comes to mind is childcare services, that will not just encourage them but enable them to go to those more remote towns." Livingston Medical provides GPs to local governments in the alliance. Michael Livingston said they had a "rural generalist hub" model which included working with doctors who were training and ensuring those taking up the roles had proper support. "We reckon we save the state about $14-20 million a year in preventable retrievals, that is when people don't have to be flown out because there's a doctor there who can see to the patient," Dr Livingston said. Mr Armstrong said going through Livingston Medical had reduced the pressure on the Shire of Lake Grace to source its own doctors. "We've only been working under this model for going on two years, we're fairly comfortable with it, we're just not comfortable that we've got to pay a cash component," he said. "We've most probably tried half a dozen different models and methods of getting doctors into our area, even at one stage here in Lake Grace we were flying in and flying out doctors from Albany." The proposal from the six local governments for federal funding was listed for discussion at the recent Australian Local Government Association National General Assembly. Federal Health Minister Mark Butler said the government was considering the findings of the Working Better for Medicare Review, which examined existing policies to attract and distribute the health workforce, including for regional, rural and remote areas. The Rural Clinical School of WA began in 2002 and works with medical students who are in their penultimate and last year of studies. The students undertake training at one of 15 regional sites across the state, and project officer Juliet Bateman said the program was oversubscribed by about 50 per cent. Ms Bateman said the program was limited to the availability of places that met the necessary criteria, including being able to offer appropriate supervision. Dr Wasiun said spending time in a regional area while training could be a game changer. "If there's that exposure to rural places for junior doctors, then you've got a much better chance of that doctor staying in that rural area or moving on to another rural area rather than going back to the city," he said.
Associated Press
26-06-2025
- Health
- Associated Press
What to know about states blocking Medicaid funding for Planned Parenthood
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Thursday that states can bar Medicaid payments to Planned Parenthood, the nation's largest abortion provider. The federal government and many states already block using Medicaid funds to cover abortion. But the state-federal health insurance program for lower-income people does pay for other services from Planned Parenthood, including birth control, cancer screenings and testing and treatment for sexually transmitted infections. The ruling comes at a moment when Congress is considering blocking Planned Parenthood from receiving any federal Medicaid funding, a move that the group says would force hundreds of clinic closings — most of them in states where abortion remains legal. Here are things to know about the situation: Abortion opponents see it as a victory on principle This legal dispute goes back to a 2018 executive order from South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster that barred abortion providers from receiving Medicaid money in the state, even for services unrelated to abortion. In its 6-3 ruling, the Supreme Court overruled lower courts and said that patients don't necessarily have the right to sue for Medicaid to cover their health care from specific providers. Abortion opponents hail it as a victory on principle. 'No one should be forced to subsidize abortion,' CatholicVote President Kelsey Reinhardt said in a statement. Abortion rights advocates say it will hurt health care access Supporters of Planned Parenthood see the ruling as an obstacle to health care aside from abortion. Planned Parenthood 'provides services for highly disadvantaged populations and this will mean not only that many women in the state will lose their right to choose providers, but it will also mean that many women will lose services altogether,' said Lawrence Gostin, who specializes in public health law at Georgetown Law. For many people with Medicaid, Gostin said, Planned Parenthood is a trusted service provider, and it's often the closest one. Others emphasize that the people who could be most impacted are women who already face the greatest obstacles to getting health care. 'People enrolled in Medicaid, including young people and people of color, already face too many barriers to getting health care,' Kimberly Inez McGuire, the executive director of Unite for Reproductive & Gender Equality, said in a statement. 'This decision makes a difficult situation worse.' The implications may be narrow in South Carolina, but broader elsewhere Planned Parenthood has two clinics in South Carolina, one in Charleston and one in Columbia. Combined, they've been receiving about $90,000 a year from Medicaid out of nearly $9 billion a year the program spends in the state. South Carolina has banned most abortions after six weeks gestational age, before many women realize they're pregnant. It's one of four states to bar abortion at that point. Another 12 are enforcing bans at all stages of pregnancy. The bans were implemented after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022. The most recent high court ruling isn't a guarantee that other states will follow South Carolina's lead, but Republican attorneys general of 18 other states filed court papers supporting the state's position in the case. 'We can imagine that there's anti-abortion legislators in states who are looking to this case and may try to replicate what South Carolina has done,' said Amy Friedrich-Karnik, director of federal policy at the Guttmacher Institute, a research organization that supports abortion rights. The federal government is also targeting Planned Parenthood The U.S. House last month passed a budget measure that would bar all federal payments for 10 years to nonprofit groups that provide abortion and received more than $1 million in federal funding in 2024. A Senate vote on the measure, which President Donald Trump supports, could happen in coming days. Planned Parenthood says that if the measure becomes law, it would force its affiliates to close up to 200 of their 600 facilities across the U.S. The hardest-hit places would be the states where abortion is legal. If the federal effort is successful, Friedrich-Karnik said states that support abortion rights could use their own tax revenue to keep clinics open. On a call with reporters this week, SBA Pro-Life America President Marjorie Dannenfelser said it's a priority for her group to hobble Planned Parenthood. She said starving Planned Parenthood of Medicaid reimbursements would not have a major impact on patients, because other clinics offer similar services without providing abortion. 'Medicaid money is attached to the person, so she'll retain the same amount of money,' Dannenfelser said. 'She'll just take it to a different place.' Abortion funding is already battered The 2022 Supreme Court ruling that ended the nationwide right to abortion jolted the abortion system across the U.S. and left clinics struggling. Women in states with bans in place now use abortion pills or travel to states where it's legal. Surveys have found that the number of monthly abortions nationally has risen since the court ruling. But over the same time period, some clinics have closed and funds that help people obtain abortion have said it's hard to stretch their money to cover the added cost of travel. ___ The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute's Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
Yahoo
26-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Texas is getting older, but its child population is growing
Texas is growing older faster than the rest of the nation, but the number of children in the state has grown while the country's population of young people has shrunk. The population of Texans age 65 and older grew faster than any other age group since the start of the decade, U.S. Census Bureau data released Thursday show — including working-age adults and children under the age of 18. The number of elder Texans grew 3.8% from 2023 to 2024, faster than the rest of the nation as a whole. People are living longer than in past generations. As they age, older Texans will increasingly rely on those of working age, a population that isn't growing as quickly, for support, said Holly Heard, vice president of data and analytics at Texas 2036. Older Texans face increased pressure from the state's high housing costs. In a state with the highest levels of people without health insurance, a growing number of Texans will face ailments as they age. 'Texas is less equipped than many other states to take care of our aging population,' Heard said. The number of working-age Texans hasn't kept pace with growth in the senior population even as the state has boomed. Texas has seen fewer people move here from other parts of the country, but the state will have to lean on labor from outside its borders to keep its economic growth humming, said Lloyd Potter, the state demographer. 'If we're not producing our labor in Texas and if we can't import them, then that's going to potentially have an impact on the expansion of our economy,' Potter said. Texas remains fairly young. The median age ticked up slightly from 35.3 years old in 2020 to 35.8 last year, below the U.S. median of 39.1. As the rest of the country saw the number of minors decline since 2020, Texas' population of young'uns grew. The state's population of Asian Americans, African Americans and Latinos has taken off since 2020 — and those families have been the source of the state's relative baby boom compared with the rest of the country, Potter said. Still, their birth rates are declining. White Texans are having fewer kids, too, as that group's population has stagnated. Children outnumber seniors in Texas, which isn't the case in 11 states including Delaware, Oregon and Philadelphia. But 76 out of 254 counties have more elders than children — predominantly rural places young people left when they came of working age to seek job opportunities elsewhere, Potter said. Disclosure: Texas 2036 has been a financial supporter of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune's journalism. Find a complete list of them here. Big news: 20 more speakers join the TribFest lineup! New additions include Margaret Spellings, former U.S. secretary of education and CEO of the Bipartisan Policy Center; Michael Curry, former presiding bishop and primate of The Episcopal Church; Beto O'Rourke, former U.S. Representative, D-El Paso; Joe Lonsdale, entrepreneur, founder and managing partner at 8VC; and Katie Phang, journalist and trial lawyer. Get tickets. TribFest 2025 is presented by JPMorganChase.
