Joanna S. Suder

In recognition of Mental Health Awareness Month, Network attorneys and staff have identified six key policies with the potential to significantly improve mental health outcomes across the United States. This policy brief covers a wide range of areas focused on communities and those who work to support communities. It is designed as a practical resource for public health professionals, leaders, and partners, offering strategies to enhance mental health and well-being while reducing disparities in mental health care.

The newly issued Biden Administration HIPAA Final Rule seeks to strengthen privacy protections under HIPAA for protected health information potentially related to reproductive health care. Join Network attorneys as they discuss key provisions, potential implementation challenges and what this means for public health, including how the rule may affect data transfers for public health purposes.

As the country, and the world, wait to see how the Supreme Court decides the case of Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine v. FDA seeking to prevent the distribution of abortion medication, there are four important reproductive health care cases working their way through the federal court system that may also affect a large number of individuals, especially adolescents and people who have low incomes. Although Title X has been law for 54 years, courts have played and continue to play a role in construing the permissible use of Title X funds, with the four pending cases outlined in this fact sheet as examples.

Title X is a federal grant program that funds family planning and reproductive health care services in the U.S. Two states with abortion bans recently loss Title X grant funding because of the grant's requirement that pregnant patients receive counseling options that include abortion. While the federal government had the right to terminate funding, clients (who are mostly young and have low incomes) lost access to important care as a result of their states' decision to ban abortion.

The Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization eviscerated 50 years of precedent and constitutional rights to abortion. States have since adopted widely divergent reproductive health care access policies, illustrating serious legal questions remaining post-Roe. Attend this webinar for the latest information on litigation in state courts regarding reproductive health care access through state constitutions and statutes; an update on how states are protecting reproductive health records through data privacy laws; and how local health departments are serving their communities in the post-Roe landscape.

As a result of the Supreme Court decision in Dobbs, advocates on both sides of the abortion issue turned to state constitutions to determine the contours of a right to abortion or to make clear no such right exists under state law. When abortion was on the ballot in 2022, voters in several states rallied to enshrine the right to abortion in state constitutions and rejected attempts to further restrict abortions in their states. In the wake of these successful ballot measures, state legislators throughout the country have sought to amend ballot initiative processes ahead of the 2024 elections. This fact sheet outlines recent proposed amendments by several states that are intended to thwart pro-abortion ballot initiatives.

The majority of abortions in the U.S. are medical abortions, a safe and effective method for early pregnancy, initiated by patients using a medication regimen. Medical abortions, also called chemical abortions or abortion pills, are one of the new battlegrounds on which political and legal wars are being fought. This fact sheet provides information on the drug regimen for medication abortion and current legal challenges to their use.