News & Insights

The evidence is clear that the criminalization of substance use leads to worse health outcomes for pregnant and postpartum people who use drugs (PPWUD) and their babies. Despite this evidence, many states continue to prioritize punitive measures for PPWUD. Others, however, are beginning to embrace a harm reduction approach to perinatal substance use.

In the wake of the renewed racial justice movement in 2020 and the COVID-19 pandemic, many jurisdictions across the country enacted laws to address health disparities and advance racial equity, while others enacted laws that may impede these goals. This searchable dataset features the laws that were enacted, and that were still in effect on December 31, 2022.

The Network for Public Health Law (the Network) has released a guide on “Law and Policy Considerations for Workforce Protections from Extreme Heat,” detailing federal, state, and local legal and policy protections for both indoor and outdoor workers exposed to extreme heat on the job. The guide also addresses significant barriers to safeguarding this workforce, including the legal doctrine of preemption, which allows higher levels of government to limit the authority of lower levels; and provides information for policymakers, community leaders, public health practitioners, and others seeking to institute more effective heat protection for workers in their communities.

Passed in 2020, the Great American Outdoors Act has made strides in conservation and the expansion of public lands and green spaces in the United States, which provide immense public health benefits. The Outdoors for All Act, currently awaiting Senate approval, would expand on this progress by increasing access to parks and green spaces in low-income communities and communities of color.

Since its inception, graduated driver licensing (GDL) has focused on minimizing the prevalence of motor vehicle crashes caused by new drivers, reducing related injuries and property damage. Some states have made another important addition to their driver education program—the impact of vehicle emissions on air quality.

Recent litigation under the First Amendment’s Free Exercise Clause has challenged school vaccination requirements that do not allow for a religious exemption. The rulings in these cases have important implications for public health.

Public health law plays a critical role in protecting communities from the current and future health threats posed by climate change. Based on their work with communities and public health professionals, the Network’s Climate and Health team has identified 10 public health law strategies to equitably prepare communities for the health impacts of climate change.

Traffic crashes remain the leading cause of death for teenagers both in the United States and worldwide. As cars have continuously gotten bigger, heavier, and more advanced, states’ legal frameworks for training and licensing new drivers have remained largely unchanged since the early 2000s. Integrating technology into the training and licensing process for new drivers is an innovative approach with the potential to greatly improve driver safety.

Intersectionality is defined as “the framework for understanding how various aspects of individual identity interact to create unique experiences of privilege or oppression. People who use drugs are often part of multiple minority groups, compounding the effect of their identities on their experiences and increasing the likelihood that they will experience oppression in systems. 

Recent litigation under the First Amendment’s Free Exercise Clause has challenged school vaccination requirements that do not allow for a religious exemption. The rulings in these cases have important implications for public health.

In April, the Environmental Protection Agency announced $20 billion in grant awards to fund the purchase of heat pumps, which provide multiple economic, environmental, and health benefits. This federal initiative holds promising opportunities for advancing public health efforts to address the negative and disparate impacts of climate change.

Since 2019, the Network has participated in the East Side Health and Well-being Collaborative (“the Collaborative”), a dynamic and diverse coalition of two dozen organizations dedicated to advancing community health equity on St. Paul’s East Side in Minnesota. Serving as a core Partner on the Collaborative, the Network plays a pivotal role, co-founding and leading the Collaborative’s Policy Work Group; providing training on the intersection between health equity, public health, and law and policy; helping identify specific policies that support the Collaborative’s program goals; and participating in and contributing to collaborative activities. We hope by sharing the Collaborative’s unique approach and our learnings as a Partner, we can inform how the public health law field can engage in similar efforts which can positively impact the people and populations we serve, the sectors we reside in, the communities in which we live, and the systems we seek to change.