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Tamikka Burks was in an Arkansas emergency room when she found out she had lost her Medicaid coverage. In mid-September, she went in to deal with a cyst in her toe, and someone at the hospital informed her that the state’s Department of Human Services had cut off her coverage on Sept. 1. She felt, she said, “just exhausted. Scared.” (Bryce Covert, 12/20)

By taking up a case that will determine the future availability of mifepristone, half of the two-drug medical abortion regimen that has been administered for more than two decades, the court didn’t just place reproductive rights squarely on its docket for the second time in three years. More broadly, it will determine whether the judgment of FDA experts, based on a broad body of medical scientific research, can be second-guessed in court on the basis of political and religious ideology. (12/20)

Eleven years ago, two days before Christmas, my 24-year-old brother, who was a university graduate and former law student, died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. After a decade of hard and continuous drinking interspersed with addiction and mental health treatment, he could not sustain his recovery. His suicide came on the heels of my mother’s death a year before, and just weeks later, my grandfather died in a car accident. My family’s holidays would never be the same. Like so many others who survived the loss of someone dear from the chaos of severe substance use disorder (SUD), I am too familiar with unspeakable grief. But I have found meaning through it and purpose in passing that on. (Cara Poland, 12/20)

There is so much dismal news about young people struggling with mental health problems, suicide, fentanyl, vaping, social media, pornography and online gambling. Yet we continue to overlook one of the most effective and expedient ways to address these problems: regulatory action to curb youth exposure and access to addictive, unhealthy influences purportedly meant for adults only. (Aaron Weiner and Linda Richter, 12/20)

State lawmakers from both sides of the aisle are invested in the issue of luxury sales tax on feminine hygiene products and diapers, which means they must be hearing from their constituents that this is an important matter to Missourians. In Missouri, both feminine hygiene products and diapers are taxed as tangible personal property at a rate 4.225%. These basic necessities are being taxed as luxuries, while other necessities — such as groceries — are taxed at a reduced rate of 1.225%. Prescription medications and other medical products, such as hearing aids, are exempt from sales tax entirely. (Marilou Jackson, 12/19)