How do rape exceptions for abortion work? They don’t.

October 24, 2018 health, health care, medicaid, News

Over the past year, Dr. Shanthi Ramesh performed abortions for seven sexual assault survivors and she recalls Medicaid insurance only paying for two.

It didn’t matter that they were all technically eligible for Medicaid — meaning, they were all poor enough to receive public health insurance — or that a doctor, in her professional opinion, believed they were raped. She says four of the seven women did not report their assaults to local law enforcement and, so, insurance ...

How do rape exceptions for abortion work? They don’t.

October 24, 2018 health, health care, medicaid, News

Over the past year, Dr. Shanthi Ramesh performed abortions for seven sexual assault survivors and she recalls Medicaid insurance only paying for two.

It didn’t matter that they were all technically eligible for Medicaid — meaning, they were all poor enough to receive public health insurance — or that a doctor, in her professional opinion, believed they were raped. She says four of the seven women did not report their assaults to local law enforcement and, so, insurance ...

Anti-gay lawyers just showed up in the Supreme Court with a big ask for Brett Kavanaugh

October 23, 2018 News, politics, religion

A team of conservative lawyers filed a petition in the Supreme Court on Friday, effectively asking the Court to allow religious conservatives to discriminate against same-sex couples.

This latest case, Klein v. Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries, presents many of the same issues that arose last term in Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission. That case, billed as an epic showdown over whether religion can be used to discriminate, wound up being ...

Trump administration falsely blames Obama administration for transgender erasure proposal

October 23, 2018 lgbtq, News, transgender, Trump administration

The Trump administration issued a new response Monday to the New York Times’ report that it is considering a plan to erase transgender people from recognition under federal nondiscrimination laws. This attempt to blame the Obama administration for the current circumstances is not only false, but further undermined by conservative groups’ praise for the news.

In a statement calling the Times’ story “misleading,” Health and Human Services spokesperson Cai...

What you should know about the migrant caravan and the conspiracy theories surrounding it

October 23, 2018 News

As many as 7,000 Central Americans are making their to the U.S.-Mexico border, and along with them are a wealth of misinformation and conspiracy theories regarding their motives and character.

While this isn’t the first migrant caravan to make its way to the U.S.-Mexico border under the Trump administration, it is the largest — and with midterm elections only two weeks away, this one has elicited the most strident response from Republicans and the White House, who are le...

It’s not an exaggeration to say the Trump administration wants to erase transgender people

October 22, 2018 health care, lgbtq, News, transgender, Trump administration

A Sunday New York Times article revealed that the Trump administration is planning to impose a rule that would effectively erase the existence of transgender people under the law. Though the Times did not share the full memo draft it had reviewed, it detailed the memo’s plan to define sex across agencies as “either male or female, unchangeable, and determined by the genitals that a person is born with” — subject to genetic testing.

It’s the equivalent of impo...

Utah voters are poised to expand Medicaid this November

October 20, 2018 health care, News, politics

Utah is poised to expand Medicaid, with 59 percent of people saying in a new poll from The Salt Lake Tribune that they support a ballot initiative that would provide health care to roughly 150,000 low-income people in the state.

According to the poll, which The Tribune released Thursday, the percentage of people who support the initiative has increased, up from the 54 percent in favor in a poll last June. The share of voters opposed to the measure fell slightly, from 35 percent in J...

Trump praises lawmaker for physically assaulting a reporter

October 19, 2018 Donald Trump, News

During a campaign-style rally in Missoula, Montana Thursday night, President Trump openly celebrated a congressman for physically assaulting a reporter who asked him a question about health care in May of 2017.

Recounting how then-candidate Greg Gianforte (R-MN) bodyslammed Ben Jacobs of the Guardian, Trump ominously pointed at the journalists in attendance and even reenacted what he thought the attack looked like.

ThinkProgress

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Trump claims ‘All Republicans support people with pre-existing conditions’ in blatant lie

October 18, 2018 Donald Trump, health, News, obamacare, politics

President Donald Trump, whose administration asked a court to end Obamacare’s protections for people with pre-existing medical conditions just last month, claimed “All Republicans support people with pre-existing conditions” in a tweet on Thursday.

All Republicans support people with pre-existing conditions, and if they don’t, they will after I speak to them. I am in total support. Also, Democrats will destroy your Medicare, and I will keep it ...

A Dutch physician is sending medication abortion to Americans by mail

October 18, 2018 health, News

If you have to travel 100 miles to terminate your pregnancy, ordering abortion pills online might be a more practical option for you. But while it’s relatively easy to purchase medication abortion on the internet, websites can feel sketchy or confusing as they don’t always provide the relevant information or instructions.

Dutch physician Rebecca Gomperts has addressed this problem, launching a new service called Aid Access that mails abortion pills to people living in th...