Judge Lifts Ban On Planned Parenthood Medicaid Funding, With Caveat
The federal judge's new injunction would remove the onus on states to figure out which of their health care providers are covered by the ban and to stop funding the non-abortion services the clinics provide to Medicaid patients, Politico reports. The injunction is paused for seven days to allow the Justice Department to appeal to a higher court.
A federal judge has again blocked a provision Congress passed in July that stripped federal Medicaid funding from Planned Parenthood affiliates, ruling that the language likely places an unconstitutional burden on states to apply vague criteria about the scope of the ban. (Gerstein and Ollstein, 12/2)
A majority of the Supreme Court on Tuesday appeared to believe an anti-abortion pregnancy center should be able to challenge a subpoena demanding its donor information in federal court. The dispute focused on a subpoena issued by the New Jersey Office of the Attorney General in November 2023, seeking information, including donor names and contact information, from First Choice Women鈥檚 Resource Centers, a group of five centers that seek to dissuade women from having abortions. (VanSickle, 12/2)
More reproductive health news 鈥
The US stillbirth rate dropped 2% last year, according to data published Wednesday by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a hopeful improvement after a turbulent few years. (McPhillips, 12/3)
For decades, U.S. marriage rates have been on the decline while the average age at which Americans have children has risen. Alongside this, birth rates have dropped 鈥 a phenomenon the Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. has called a 鈥渘ational security threat.鈥 Within Donald Trump鈥檚 administration鈥檚 Make America Great Again movement, pro-natalists opine that society鈥檚 existence could be at stake. (Cohen, 12/3)
麻豆女优 Health News:
Trump Wants Americans To Make More Babies. Critics Say His Policies Won鈥檛 Help Raise Them
Maddy Olcott plans to start a career once she graduates from college. But the junior at the State University of New York-Purchase College is so far not planning to start a family 鈥 even with the Trump administration dangling inducements like thousand-dollar 鈥渂aby bonuses鈥 or cheaper infertility drugs. "Our country wants us to be birthing machines, but they鈥檙e cutting what resources there already are,鈥 said Olcott, 20. 鈥淎nd a $1,000 baby bonus? It鈥檚 low-key like, what, bro? That wouldn鈥檛 even cover my month鈥檚 rent.鈥 (Armour and Seitz, 12/3)
Michigan is rapidly expanding doula access after beginning to cover the service through its federally funded Medicaid program, a shift that health officials say will improve birth outcomes and strengthen maternal care. There are over 1,000 registered doulas in Michigan, which surpassed the state鈥檚 goal of having 500 registered doulas by 2028, as part of the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services鈥 Advancing Healthy Births Plan. (James, 12/2)
