Health
Emotions run high as Georgia House panel advances bill limiting transgender care for minors
A Georgia House committee gave its approval Tuesday to a Senate bill aimed at restricting the type of care doctors could provide to transgender minors. If signed into law, Cordele Republican Sen. Carden Summers’ Senate Bill 140 would prevent doctors from providing surgical or hormone treatments for gender dysphoria to people under 18. Minors already […]
Georgia House plan to expand mental health services hits turbulence in state Senate
This story was updated at 2 p.m. Friday, March 17, 2023. This year’s House plan to build on last session’s bipartisan mental health bill is receiving a cool reception in the state Senate, where lawmakers have raised concerns about the potential cost. Sen. Kay Kirkpatrick, a Marietta Republican who is leading the review of the […]
This International Women’s Day, U.S. anti-abortion laws violate human rights, groups say
Ahead of International Women’s Day, hundreds of U.S. and global human rights groups, doctors, and attorneys have asked the United Nations to intervene on behalf of the millions of women in the U.S. who have been left without access to legal abortion and vital forms of reproductive health care in the wake of last summer’s […]
As COVID protections end, patients classified as ‘medically needy’ fear new barriers to care
Courtney Blake and her 10-year-old daughter live on their own in Ypsilanti, Michigan. Both of them struggle with chronic mental health issues and have been using Medicaid to help pay for their behavioral health care needs. But like millions of people across the country, Blake is worried that at the end of this health emergency […]
Senate backs ban on transgender care for children in late Crossover Day vote
Young transgender Georgians could be denied access to some forms of gender-affirming care if a bill that passed the Senate Monday night becomes law. Senate Bill 140, authored by Cordele Republican Sen. Carden Summers, passed on a party-line vote. It would outlaw surgical or hormone replacement treatments for gender dysphoria, with an exemption for children […]
Georgia lawmakers offer both punitive and safety net approaches to tackling homelessness
More than 10,000 Georgians experience homelessness, according to a 2022 report released by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. And one-third of Georgia’s unhoused population is in metro Atlanta, said Partners for Home CEO Cathryn Vassell. Each January, Partners for Home conducts its Point in Time Count, where hundreds of volunteers fan out […]
Georgia Senate next stop for House bill that aims to expand access to mental health services
A proposal billed as the next step toward improving access to behavioral health services in Georgia easily cleared the state House Thursday. The bipartisan measure would streamline data sharing among state agencies, study the state’s crisis bed space capacity and expand a loan repayment program meant to grow the behavioral health workforce. “We know that […]
Remaining abortion clinics face more challenges if abortion pill limited by Texas judge
JACKSON, MISS. The Pink House — otherwise known as Jackson Women’s Health Organization — was the center of the U.S. Supreme Court case that overturned the federal right to abortion in June. Today, the clinic, the only abortion clinic to serve Mississippi and the greater area for years, is shuttered. On a hot day in […]
How the judge who could ban the abortion pill won confirmation in the U.S. Senate
WASHINGTON — The U.S. District Court judge who could end more than two decades of legal access to medication abortion underwent extensive questioning about LGBTQ equality at his December 2017 confirmation hearing — and very little about his views on abortion. Matthew Joseph Kacsmaryk, appointed by former President Donald Trump earlier in 2017, spent much […]
Georgia House proposal for cigarette tax hike to promote public health runs into anti-tax buzzsaw
Georgia smokers and vapers could be paying more for their nicotine habit under a pair of bills working their way through the state House. This week, the House Subcommittee on Tax Revisions held its first hearing on House Bills 191 and 192, which would raise taxes on cigarettes and vape products respectively. The cigarette tax […]
Doctors recount ‘heart-wrenching’ stories in new study on medical care post-Roe
Researchers at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) are trying to piece together how the end of Roe v. Wade has so far transformed pregnancy-related medical care in America, and the yet-to-be-released preliminary data are alarming, the lead principal investigator told States Newsroom in an exclusive interview. The team has already received dozens of […]
Georgia GOP lawmakers advance bill to ban some gender-affirming health care
A Senate committee passed a bill Wednesday that would ban doctors from performing some gender affirming procedures on transgender patients under 18. Sen. Carden Summers’ Senate Bill 140 would restrict surgical treatment for gender dysphoria as well as hormone therapy for minors, but it would allow puberty blockers, which delay the onset of puberty. “This […]