A hearing will be held today on a bill that would ban gender-affirming health care for transgender youth. The Save Adolescents from Experimentation Act, also known as the SAVE Act, would prohibit doctors in Ohio from prescribing puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones and surgical procedures to people under the age of 18.
Proponents have argued that vulnerable young people confused about their gender become the subject of irreversible and drastic procedures.
Eliana Turan, board member of the LGBT Community Center of Greater Cleveland and a transgender woman, said they were pushing a false narrative of young people in crisis.
“Let’s say you’re a 16-year-old trans kid. In most cases, you’re not going to walk into a doctor’s office and walk out with a bunch of irreversible body changes,” Turan argued. “It’s just not the standard of care in Ohio. I don’t think anyone is trying to push for it.”
The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends gender-affirming medical care for transgender youth. The SAVE Act will have its first hearing with the proponent’s testimony at the Families, Aging and Human Services Committee.
Maria Bruno, director of public policy for Equality Ohio, said such a ban would take control away from doctors, counselors and parents, and harm the mental well-being of transgender and non-binary youth.
“The basic premise is that young trans people are just in a phase that they will grow out of,” Bruno explained. “That’s just not how science and research show it works. In fact, trans-affirming medical care decreases suicidal ideation.”
The SAVE Act has two sponsors and two dozen co-sponsors, all Republicans. Turan said that as an Ohioan, she thinks elected officials should focus on the important issues.
“As a military veteran who served six years in uniform during the ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ era, this is not an example of the freedom and protection I worked so hard for. to give to my neighbours,” Turan said. remark. “That’s definitely not the way we should be treating our trans neighbors.”
An Arkansas ban passed last year is temporarily on hold pending a legal challenge. Similar bills have been introduced in more than 30 other states.
Reporting by Ohio News Connection in association with Media in the Public Interest and funded in part by the George Gund Foundation.
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Gov. Gavin Newsom received a six-foot-tall Valentine on Monday, thanking him for putting Medi-Cal access for undocumented people in his latest budget proposal.
Lawyers brought a giant heart-shaped card to the Capitol, covered in letters from dozens of Californians.
Beatriz Hernandez, Central Valley organizing member with the California Immigrant Policy Center, said that currently hundreds of thousands of undocumented immigrants are only eligible for emergency medical coverage.
“They can’t make it to just any regular doctor’s visit, like you and me,” Hernandez explained. “They can only access care if their life is in danger in an emergency.”
Governor Newsom’s proposal would open large-scale Medi-Cal coverage to income-eligible undocumented adults ages 26 to 49. In recent years, the state has expanded eligibility to undocumented children, seniors, and young adults. Opponents of the program cite concerns about costs.
The state’s legislative analyst’s office said the proposal would cover an additional 700,000 people and cost the state $2.2 billion a year, if implemented starting in 2024.
Hernandez noted that this would make California the first state in the nation to provide health care for all.
“It’s about bringing California to the fore and showing the rest of the nation that this is something that can be done,” Hernandez said. “This is what a fair state can look like when those in power do the right thing.”
Sen. Maria Elena Durazo, D-Los Angeles, and Asm. Joaquin Arambula, D-Fresno, both supporters of the “Health4All” campaign, also signed the card. The California legislature has until June to approve a budget.
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Missouri has about 330,000 lead service lines, the lines connecting water lines to buildings, including private homes, and federal funding could help speed the removal and replacement process.
The bipartisan infrastructure bill passed by Congress last year includes $15 billion for replacing lead pipes, drawing on funds from the US bailout.
Erik D. Olson, senior strategic director at the Natural Resources Defense Council, noted that Missouri has the sixth-most lead service lines in the nation and fourth-highest per capita.
“It’s very important, really crucial, to get these lead pipes out of the ground, so people don’t drink through a lead straw,” Olson argued.
Olson added that more than 80% of Missouri children have detectable lead levels in their blood, the second highest percentage in the nation. He noted that lead can have serious health effects in children, from learning disabilities and hearing loss to damaged blood cells. And in adults, lead exposure can lead to heart disease, reproductive health issues and more.
Dan Giammar, professor of environmental engineering at Washington University in St. Louis, said lead pipes are more common in older cities, especially in homes and neighborhoods built before 1930. He pointed out that many other water contaminants can be treated at treatment plants, but lead is unique because it is the pipes themselves.
“Lead is really a tough contaminant for water systems because they can do all kinds of great things in a treatment plant, but they’re not going to remove lead at the treatment plant because the source of the lead is between the wastewater treatment plant and the customers,” Giammar pointed out.
Utility companies often replace only portions of service lines on public property, or what is called partial replacement. NRDC experts say funding to replace service lines is a barrier for many communities trying to eliminate lead from their drinking water, especially low-income communities.
Support for this report was provided by the Carnegie Corporation of New York.
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February marks a year of community health centers administering COVID vaccines, playing a crucial role in protecting populations disproportionately affected by the virus.
So far, they have administered nearly 15,000 doses of vaccine at the Eastern Arkansas Family Health Center, which serves Crittenden, Phillips, Poinsett and Mississippi counties.
Dr Susan Ward-Jones, CEO of the Centre, said part of their success is bringing their clinical services to churches, schools and factories. She argued that health centers are trusted messengers in the fight against vaccine misinformation.
“I think, even to this day, it’s a one-on-one conversation with patients,” Ward-Jones explained. “And you know, frame it as such that it’s an individual choice, but ‘let me fill you in on the vaccine and why it’s so important,’ especially for those with co-morbidities and chronic illnesses.”
Ward-Jones pointed out that the East Arkansas Family Center hires community health workers to increase immunization rates in underserved communities. Health centers across the country provided 19.2 million COVID-19 vaccines over the past year, with more than two-thirds of recipients identifying as people of color.
Dr Anne Gaglioti, associate professor of family medicine at Morehouse School of Medicine and senior strategic adviser at the National Center for Primary Care, said that, like many frontline workers, staff at the community health center have been through what she called it a ‘traumatic experience’. “during the pandemic, struggling with burnout and loss.
“I know they are tired and have suffered a huge loss,” Gaglioti observed. “And despite that, they still come to work every day and take care of people, take care of their neighbors.”
Community health centers accept patients regardless of income or whether or not they have health insurance. And there are fewer COVID-19 deaths and infections where there is a health center, according to a study by the National Association of Community Health Centers and Morehouse’s National COVID-19 Resiliency Network.
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