The Trump administration is paying Focus on the Family to stop the AIDS epidemic in South Africa

April 18, 2018 Donald Trump, health, News, politics, World

The State Department gave a prominent anti-LGBTQ religious organization a grant to combat HIV/AIDS in South Africa through a religious program that pressures kids into pledging that they will abstain from sex until marriage.

An affiliate of Focus on the Family (FOTF) received a $49,505 grant under the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) from the State Department’s Office of the U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator on September 18, 2017, while the department was un...

Most young people want health insurance to cover abortion, new poll finds

April 17, 2018 health, health care, News, reproductive-rights

A new national poll found a majority of young adults believe abortion services should be covered by most health care plans, a finding that contrasts current coverage bans at the national and state level.

While the survey — conducted by the nonpartisan research organization Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) — also found that the United States is more divided on whether health plans should generally cover abortion care, especially as compared to other reproductive ...

Larry Kudlow says the CBO is always wrong, but he regularly cited their numbers

April 17, 2018 Congressional Budget Office, Donald Trump, News, politics

Weeks into his tenure as Donald Trump’s director of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, former CNBC host Larry Kudlow dismissed estimates by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) that the tax cuts and spending bills Trump signed will swell the budget deficit. In a Fox News interview on Tuesday, he claimed that the office’s analyses are “always wrong.”

“Never believe the CBO,” Kudlow told Fox & Friends. “Very important....

Meet the Indian-American doctor vying to replace Rep. Trent Franks

April 17, 2018 health care, News

In the wake of the 2016 presidential election, Hiral Tipirneni talked to her three kids about the importance of civic engagement, of standing up for the issues you think are important, and of the value of women in politics. In response, Tipirneni’s daughter Mira — who was 19 years old at the time — told her mother to put her money where her mouth was.

“She basically threw down the gauntlet,” Tipirneni recounted in an interview with ThinkProgress.

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The anti-choice movement is suddenly obsessed with Cardi B

April 17, 2018 News

Everyone has an opinion on Cardi B’s decision to have a baby, and now so do the anti-choicers.

The anti-choice movement and its supporters are capitalizing on a recent radio interview with Cardi B. In the interview, the rapper explains why she decided against having an abortion, after many people criticized her for having a baby amidst stardom. But the anti-choice crowd has ignored much of what she said during the interview, and in the process, simplified a conversation about ...

A red state just added Medicaid expansion to the November ballot

April 16, 2018 health, medicaid, News, politics

Utah residents are going to vote on Medicaid expansion in November, after organizers got enough signatures to put the item on the ballot.

The advocacy group, Utah Decides Healthcare, submitted more than 165,000 signatures on Monday to put a “clean” Medicaid expansion on the November ballot — about 50,000 more signatures than required. The news came less than a month after Gov. Gary Herbert (R) approved legislation requesting federal approval for a conservative Medi...

This pro-choice, pro-immigrant Mennonite could be Lancaster’s next member of Congress

April 16, 2018 News, politics

LANCASTER, PENNSYLVANIA — Those outside of Pennsylvania’s Amish country may be surprised to hear of Lancastrians gathering to protest the Muslim ban, or standing in solidarity with Charlottesville, or demanding that their congressman hold a town hall on health care, or calling for a Dream Act. But that open-arms, open-door spirit is embedded into the state’s and county’s history.

Jess King knows that spirit well. The Pennsylvania native, who was born and rais...

From mandatory sick leave to Obamacare safeguards, New Jersey had a good healthcare week

April 13, 2018 health care, News, obamacare

A trove of progressive health care bills are now on the desk of New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy (D). On Thursday, lawmakers in the state sent him several measures like mandatory paid sick leave, knowing the governor is all but certain to sign them — unlike his Republican predecessor Chris Christie.

Once the bills are signed, New Jersey would become the 10th state to enact a paid sick leave law — a critical workplace benefit that helps employees balance work, family, and medi...

We’re saying goodbye to Paul Ryan, but not his horrible health policies

April 12, 2018 health, health care, medicaid, News, Paul Ryan, politics

House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) is on his way out the door.

But while he’s largely failed to implement his vision before retirement — that is, to repeal Obamacare and privatize every safety-net program there is — Republicans aren’t going to stop trying to do so anytime soon. In fact, they’ll likely take cues from his record.

Throughout his time in Washington, Ryan built a career on portraying himself as a deficit hawk, somehow convincing people he...

Cruelty toward the poor trails Paul Ryan’s tenure in Washington

April 12, 2018 News, Paul Ryan, politics

House Speaker Paul Ryan’s (R-Wisc.) announced this week that he will not run for re-election later this year, bringing down the curtain on his long career of antagonism toward the plight of the nation’s poor and disadvantaged people.

Though Ryan’s public persona has been characterized, off-and-on, as something of a serious and deep thinker on issues related to poverty, taxation, and welfare policy, his record — and now legacy — in public life is one of ...