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KHN’s ‘What the Health?’: Paging the HHS Secretary

Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra is becoming a target for both Democrats and Republicans over what they call a lack of coordination of covid efforts within his department.

3 Feb 2022

Stigma around birth defects still plagues people in Africa

Cynthia Solomon, a 45-year-old businesswoman in Nigeria, started having issues in her matrimonial home when she gave birth to two children with Down syndrome.

1 Feb 2022

New condom could increase protected sex and decrease sexually transmitted infections

A condom designed to increase sexual pleasure has the potential to increase protected sex and decrease sexually transmitted infections, a new study suggests.

25 Jan 2022

Fast-tracked ruling on abortion won’t wait for ‘hearts and minds’ to change

When he was running for president in 1999, George W. Bush, then governor of Texas, famously fended off the strong anti-abortion wing of his party by suggesting the country ought not consider banning abortion until public opinion shifted further in that direction. "Laws are changed as minds are persuaded," he said.

21 Jan 2022

KHN’s ‘What the Health?’: Roe v. Wade’s (possibly last) anniversary

Jan. 22 is the 49th anniversary of the Supreme Court's landmark abortion ruling, Roe v. Wade, and could well be its last. The conservative supermajority on the court seems poised to allow states to severely restrict or even ban the procedure.

20 Jan 2022

Buffy Wicks turns her health history into legislation

In her short tenure as an elected official, California Assembly member Buffy Wicks hasn't been shy about sharing her most intimate health care struggles with the public.

19 Jan 2022

Distrust in state power closely linked vaccine hesitancy

Distrust of the state in Turkey, religion and abortion resistance in the United States. Politics and culture are just as important in explaining vaccine hesitancy as health.

5 Jan 2022

Abortion rights advocates try to change opinions with deeply personal conversations

It's Saturday, and Sarah Mahoney is one of several Planned Parenthood volunteers knocking on doors in Windham, Maine, a politically moderate town not far from Portland.

17 Dec 2021

KHN’s ‘What the Health?’: Oh, oh, omicron

This week, the U.S. passed the milestone of 800,000 dead from covid-19, as hospitals are starting to fill following the Thanksgiving holiday and the ominous omicron variant starts to spread rapidly.

16 Dec 2021

Split Supreme Court leaves Texas abortion law in effect, but says providers may sue

In the second-most anticipated abortion case of the year, eight justices on the U.S. Supreme Court ruled Friday that abortion providers can challenge a Texas law that has effectively banned most abortions in the state since it was allowed to take effect in September.

10 Dec 2021

KHN’s ‘What the Health?’: Much ado about (vaccine) mandates

Even with the new omicron variant of the covid virus spreading in the U.S., Republicans on Capitol Hill are pushing to stop President Joe Biden from requiring workers to either be tested regularly or vaccinated.

9 Dec 2021

Abortion remains safe after removing restrictions on the medical abortion pill, study finds

Abortion remains safe after Canada removed restrictions on the medical abortion pill mifepristone in November 2017.

9 Dec 2021

Texas toughens ban on medication-by-mail abortions with jail time and hefty fine

Texas already had the most restrictive abortion laws in the U.S. — and they just got tougher. On Wednesday, a new law took effect that adds penalties of jail time and a fine of up to $10,000 for anyone who prescribes pills for medication abortions through telehealth or the mail.

6 Dec 2021

New California law eases aid-in-dying process

During her three-year battle with breast cancer, my wife, Leslie, graciously endured multiple rounds of horrifically toxic treatment to eke out more time with our two young children.

3 Dec 2021

Conservative justices seem poised to overturn Roe’s abortion rights

A newly conservative Supreme Court on Wednesday heard the most serious legal challenge in a generation to a woman's right to obtain an abortion. And judging from the questions asked by the justices, it appeared possible — even likely — that a majority of them could vote to turn the thorny question of whether to allow abortion and under what circumstances back to individual states.

1 Dec 2021

KHN’s ‘What the Health?’: The big Biden budget bill passes the House

President Joe Biden's "Build Back Better" social spending bill passed the House last week, but the legislation faces a new and different set of hurdles in the Senate, where it will need the support of every single Democrat, plus approval by the Senate parliamentarian.

23 Nov 2021

Texas abortion law harms survivors of rape and incest, activists say

The Safe Alliance in Austin, Texas, helps survivors of child abuse, sexual assault and domestic violence. Before Texas’ new abortion law took effect, the organization counseled a 12-year-old who had been repeatedly raped by her father.

17 Nov 2021

California plans for a post-roe world as abortion access shrinks elsewhere

With access to abortion at stake across America, California is preparing to become the nation's abortion provider.

17 Nov 2021

Texas providers see increased interest in birth control since near-total abortion ban

In September, when Texas' near-total abortion ban took effect, Planned Parenthood clinics in the Lone Star State started offering every patient who walked in information on Senate Bill 8, as well as emergency contraception, condoms and two pregnancy tests. The plan is to distribute 22,000 "empowerment kits" this year.

8 Nov 2021