APHA contributes to prison health ruling
Women prisoners in Missouri will maintain their right to timely, legal and safe abortions, according to a federal appeals court ruling that the U.S. Supreme Court upheld in early October.
Last year, APHA signed onto a friend-of-the-court brief in the case of Jane Roe v. Larry Crawford, arguing that “abortion care, no less than other types of pregnancy-related care, is a serious medical need, and the intentional denial of such care constitutes unconstitutional deliberate indifference.” The case dates back to September 2005 when the Missouri Department of Corrections instituted a new policy that female inmates would be transported to receive abortions “only if the abortion is indicated due to threat to the mother’s life or health, and if approved by the medical director in consultation with the regional medical director.”
Previously, the corrections department had provided transportation to prisoners opting to terminate their pregnancies. In January 2008, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit decided the corrections system’s new abortion policy violated inmates’ constitutional rights. The decision was made final in October when the U.S. Supreme Court decided not to hear the case.
APHA urges Obama to focus on health reform
APHA is calling on President-elect Barack Obama to include meaningful health reform as one of his “first domestic priorities,” noting that getting the nation’s economy back on track will require a focus on fixing the health care system.
Joining fellow health, labor and community organizations from around the nation in a November letter initiated by Families USA, APHA urged Obama to begin gathering a health reform summit that would welcome experts, leaders, advocates and patients to develop an agenda for the country’s health reform future. The letter noted that between 2000 and 2007, family premiums for employer-provided health coverage rose more than five times faster than median earnings. APHA and fellow signatories expressed commitment to the reform process, writing that “we stand ready to support you.”
“We cannot afford to delay identifying and implementing solutions to the disturbing health care trends that undermine the economic security of our families, limit the productivity of our work force, inhibit job creation and wage growth, and threaten to crowd out investments in energy, education and infrastructure,” the letter stated.
APHA acts on Indian health, tuberculosis
In other APHA advocacy news, the Association:
offered its support in a November Friends of Indian Health letter to Reps. Norm Dicks, D-Wash., and Todd Tiahrt, R-Kansas, for the inclusion of more than $3.5 billion in Indian Health Service funding in the fiscal year 2009 Department of Interior appropriations bill;
sent a letter as part of the TB Coalition in October to Sens. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, and Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, thanking the policy-makers for securing Senate passage and enactment into law of the Comprehensive Tuberculosis Eliminaton Act; and
called on Sens. Max Baucus, D-Mont., and Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, in a September letter initiated by First Focus and the National Association of Children’s Hospitals to “ensure that the unique health care needs of children are a priority in any health reform proposal” undertaken in the coming months of Congress.
For more information, visit www.apha.org/advocacy/activities.
- Copyright The Nation’s Health, American Public Health Association
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