PI's Weekly Media Digest: Abortion restrictions impact women and children's health, climate change to drive increase in air pollution-related deaths
President Trump’s commission convened to address the opioid epidemic has recommended declaring a state of emergency, noting “With approximately 142 Americans dying every day, America is enduring a death toll equal to September 11th every three weeks.” The commission, headed by Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey, argued the declaration would empower the executive branch to “take bold steps” and “force Congress to focus on funding and empowering the executive branch even further to deal with this loss of life.” The commission also recommended enabling more people to qualify Medicaid coverage for residential treatment and increasing access to medications that help treat opioid misuse and mental health services. In addition, the recommendations address the supply side of the problem with proposals to provide better training and monitoring around opioid prescriptions and to staunch the flow of fentanyl-laced heroin, Vox reported.
A new report released by the Center for Reproductive Rights and Ibis Reproductive Health studies 400 abortion restrictions passed at the state level since 2010 and the impacts of these laws on the health and wellbeing of women and children. The researchers found that states with the “harshest abortion restrictions performed worse than less restrictive states on key benchmarks of child and maternal health.”
A new study, published in Nature Climate Change, estimates that climate change will cause deaths due to air pollution to rise by 60,000 by the year 2030, and by 260,000 by 2100.
New York Magazine covers the Environmental Protection Agency’s decision to move ahead with Obama-era clean air rules, after a proposed one-year delay met with fierce opposition from 15 state attorneys general.
Six immigrants spoke to Vox about their lives in the US since the 2016 campaign. “Since the election, I have never felt safe,” said Aurea Galvan, a 25-year-old undocumented college student who is protected from deportation through the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.
A study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine reports that according to the 2015 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, more than a third of Americans have been prescribed opioid medications, and almost five percent report they have misused the drugs. “Misuse and use disorders were most commonly reported in adults who were uninsured, were unemployed, had low income, or had behavioral health problems,” according to the study.
The NAACP issued a travel advisory for people of color, women, and LGBTQ individuals for the state of Missouri after a new law passed making it more difficult to push back against discrimination, advising that their “civil rights may be violated while visiting the state. The organization also advised “extreme caution” to both travelers and minorities currently living in Missouri.”
Growing numbers of veterans are turning to outdoor expeditions to ease the symptoms of the traumas they experienced during their military service and to transition back to civilian life, the New York Times reports. “Before modern times, armies would march home and they would get to decompress with their comrades,” one veteran says. “When I got out, I got a 20-minute PowerPoint.” Through hiking, paddling, and cycling, veterans find a sense of connection, purpose, mastery, and perhaps most importantly, an opportunity to process and reset.
Quartz profiles a father who, after losing his son to suicide at 18, has dedicated himself to promoting suicide prevention. Steve Mallen believes that one of the critical elements in prevention is shifting attitudes and addressing stigmas that discourage people like his son from seeking help.
The Justice Department announced that it will investigate colleges and universities for “discrimination” against white and Asian applicants.