Healthcare & Policy News
Reporting on health care policy, insurance coverage, and federal health programs. Includes news updates and conservative commentary from The Daily Signal.
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opinion
Most Young Adults Disagree With Democrats on Abortion
The Democrats’ national platform doesn’t just lack common decency when it comes to unborn life—it lacks common ground. For the last three years, the party of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton has been fighting to do away with consensus limits on abortion—and based on the latest polling, that isn’t exactly endearing them to voters. In… -
news
Blackburn Bill Would Eliminate All Federal Funding of Abortion Providers
Newly elected Sen. Marsha Blackburn announced Thursday that she has introduced her first bill in the Senate, one that would end federal funding to all abortion providers, including Planned Parenthood. “Tennesseans and the American people do not want their tax dollars funding abortions,” Blackburn, R-Tenn., said in a statement posted on her Twitter page Friday…. -
opinion
Planned Parenthood Admits Its Focus Is Abortion
Planned Parenthood’s new president has one thing going for her: She isn’t shying away from the truth. Now that Leana Wen’s taken over for Cecile Richards, she’s finally admitting what the rest of us knew all along. Planned Parenthood may talk about a lot of issues, but it only really cares about one—abortion. After 12… -
opinion
Sex Trafficking Is a Pandemic in the US, and It’s Time to End Demand
This past October, a Dallas-area man was sentenced to life in federal prison for trafficking children for sex. The case offered a rare glimpse into a dark underworld most Americans don’t realize exists, right in their own backyards. Because of the hidden nature of this crime, many Americans don’t realize that sex trafficking is not just an… -
news
Abortion in US Reaches Lowest Level on Record, Report Finds
The pro-life movement had a good year in 2015: Fewer American women reported having abortions than at any other time since abortion was legalized in the U.S., according to a new government report. Using the most recent data available, the abortion surveillance report published Wednesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows 638,169… -
news
The FDA Cracks Down on E-Cigarettes
More than 3.6 million middle and high school students were current e-cigarette users in 2018, a “dramatic” uptick that ended years of decline in overall youth tobacco use, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration published in a survey Thursday. The FDA released the e-cigarette portion of its National Youth Tobacco Survey early as it cracks down on… -
news
UN Committee Wants to Make Abortion and Assisted Suicide a ‘Universal Human Right’
The United Nations Human Rights Committee drafted a memo saying that abortion and physician-assisted suicide should be universal human rights. The memo, or “general comment” on the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, calls for abortion to be decriminalized everywhere. Nations and states should “not introduce new barriers and should remove existing barriers [to… -
opinion
Podcast: Why Are Western Nations Pushing Abortion on Africa?
Western funding for “population programs” in Africa has historically been the lowest of all aid initiatives, dwarfed by much more critical needs like clean water, sanitation, and education. But now, these “population programs”—which include contraceptives and abortion—are the most highly funded on the continent, with groups like the Gates Foundation and Planned Parenthood pushing dangerous… -
opinion
Western Nations Abandon Consensus to Push Abortion Agenda at UN
In a severe loss for mothers around the world, the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva last month adopted a resolution on maternal mortality that doubles down on the failed policies in place now and ignores that the requisite medical advancements exist to prevent most of the common causes we see today. The resolution… -
opinion
How the US Can Block Abortion and ‘Hate Speech’ Activism at the UN
With another session of the United Nations General Assembly underway, the U.S. has a number of opportunities to advance U.S. interests and to protect life and religious liberty, especially as the Third Committee—responsible for social, humanitarian, and cultural affairs—convenes. In promoting U.S. foreign policy at the U.N. and through its many agencies, U.S. policymakers seeking… -
opinion
For the Left, ‘Caring’ About Women Means Support for Unrestricted Legal Abortion
I’ve been writing for years about the depth of the culture war taking place in America. I’ve done so with trepidation, with knowledge that without resolution, culture wars can turn into physical wars. It happened once in America. Can it happen again? The first major violent confrontation between citizens came about as result of the… -
opinion
In Troubling Decision, FDA Contracts With Company That May Have Profited From Fetal Tissue Sales
Earlier this week, CNS News reported that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration recently signed a one-year, $15,900 contract with Advanced Bioscience Resources to acquire human fetal tissue “for implantation into severely immune-compromised mice to create chimeric animals that have a human immune system.” According to the government’s presolicitation notice, “ABR is the only company… -
opinion
Podcast: HHS Secretary Azar on How Trump Administration Can Improve Health Care
While the Trump administration remains committed to repealing Obamacare, Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar has additional ideas for how to boost health care in the United States. In an exclusive interview with The Daily Signal’s Genevieve Wood, he shares his thoughts. Plus: A new study indicates adults are spending over 11… -
news
Trump Aims to Increase Value and Decrease Costs of Health Care, HHS Secretary Says
Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said Thursday that the Trump administration is working to deregulate health care with the goals of reforming the individual insurance market, lowering prescription drug prices, and creating a “value-based” health care system. “Today, fixing American health care requires disrupting government-dictated systems, building new ones that encourage choice and… -
news
Trump Administration Takes on Unions Over ‘Skimming’ Medicaid Funds
Sally Coomer of Seattle, who cares for her disabled adult daughter at home, doesn’t like the fact that union dues are deducted from the Medicaid payment she gets for her services under a Washington state policy. “The money that is taken out in union dues, if it was not siphoned off, could be used to… -
opinion
States Need Congress to Break Obamacare’s Medicaid Gridlock
Recent attention to a court decision against a waiver granted to Kentucky to make work requirements part of its Medicaid program should spur congressional action on Obamacare to give states greater flexibility to help those in need. Under the current Obamacare structure, states that want to help low-income people get care and coverage are pushed… -
opinion
The Left’s Sick Celebration of Abortion
I thought we had seen it all from radical feminists—and what we’ve seen is way, way more than anyone other than a gynecologist needs to see. Six years ago, Code Pink zealots traipsed across the fruited plain in giant female reproductive organ costumes demanding “respect” for women’s bodies and women’s abortion rights. They called themselves… -
news
‘Roe V. Wade’ Film Director Describes How Hard It Was Shooting a Film About Abortion
Filming the new movie “Roe V. Wade” wasn’t easy, co-director Nick Loeb revealed in an interview Tuesday. Nick Loeb, who gained notoriety after fighting with ex-fiancée and “Modern Family” star Sofia Vergara over frozen embryos, is co-directing a pro-life film set to hit theaters in January 2019, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The filming hasn’t been… -
news
All Public Hospitals in Ireland Will Be Forced to Perform Abortion, Despite Objections
Ireland is reeling after its Taoiseach Leo Varadkar announced that all publicly funded hospitals in Ireland will be forced to provide abortions. “It will not, however, be possible for publicly-funded hospitals, no matter who their patron or owner is, to opt out of providing these necessary services, which will be legal in this state once this… -
news
2 Universities Win Lawsuit Against Obama’s Abortion Pill Mandate
Two Christian universities won a lawsuit against the Obama administration's abortion pill mandate after a judge ruled it violated their religious freedom. U.S. District Court Judge Mark W. Bennett ruled Tuesday that an Obama-era mandate requiring health care providers, including universities, to provide abortion services violated the religious rights of Cornerstone University in Grand Rapids,…