Baltimore City, Md. Congressional delegation fight proposed federal anti-abortion rule (Baltimore Business Journal)

Tuesday Jul 24th, 2018

Baltimore City's mayor and health commissioner were joined by the full force of the local Congressional delegation today in denouncing a move by the Trump administration which takes aim at health centers across the U.S. that perform abortions.

Wen was joined in support Monday by Baltimore City Mayor Catherine E. Pugh, Sen. Ben Cardin, Sen. Chris Van Hollen, Rep. Elijah Cummings, Rep. Dutch Ruppersberger, Rep. John Sarbanes, all Democrats, as well as several city doctors, nurses and other health care workers. She said the presence of so many health and government representatives demonstrated the significance of this issue and the overwhelming local support for women's health initiatives.

"Can you imagine if you had diabetes, going to your doctor and asking for insulin, and they can't prescribe it and can't even talk about it?," Wen said. "That’s what’s happening with this gag rule, as it applies to women in need of reproductive health services."

Read the entire story here.

Related Stories

Lead poisoning cases fell 19 percent in Baltimore last year, even as more children tested for exposure (Baltimore Sun)

The number of Baltimore children with lead poisoning fell 19 percent in 2017, even as more children were tested for exposure to the powerful neurotoxin.

Statewide, the number of Maryland children found to have elevated levels of lead in their blood held steady even as the number of children tested increased by 10 percent, according to a Maryland Department of the Environment report released Tuesday.

Read the entire story.

Azar Unveils Plan to Help Pregnant Patients Quit Opioids (MedPage Today)

States will get help from the federal government integrating services for pregnant and postpartum Medicaid patients with opioid use disorder under a pilot program announced Tuesday by Health and Hu

Trump declared an emergency over opioids. A new report finds it led to very little. (Vox)

To much fanfare last year, President Donald Trump ordered his administration to declare a public health emergency over the opioid epidemic. “As Americans, we cannot allow this to continue,” Trump said at the time. “It is time to liberate our communities from this scourge of drug addiction.”

When I’ve asked experts about these approaches, it’s not that any of them are bad. It’s that they fall short. For instance, Leana Wen, the former health commissioner of Baltimore (and soon-to-be president of Planned Parenthood), said that the Support for Patients and Communities Act “is simply tinkering around the edges.”

Read the entire story.

Visit the Newsroom