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
The Silent Suffering of Fathers After Abortion
Thirty years ago, at the urging of my then-boyfriend, I had an abortion. He convinced me we weren’t ready to have children, promised we’d get married one day and have children later, said we’d be together forever, and assured me that he loved me. I believed every word. So, on a Saturday morning, I drove… -
news
Exclusive: 56 Lawmakers Ask HHS Probe of Planned Parenthood’s Response to Child Sexual Abuse
A group of 56 lawmakers led by Rep. Vicky Hartzler, R-Mo., is urging federal officials to investigate the extent to which Planned Parenthood fails to report suspected sexual abuse of minors. In a letter Thursday to the Department of Health and Human Services, Hartzler and 55 other Republicans ask the agency to probe whether Planned… -
opinion
What Might Have Been: Biographer Reflects on the 50th Anniversary of RFK Assassination
On June 5, 1968, 50 years ago, Sen. Robert F. Kennedy died after being shot the night before by Sirhan Sirhan at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles. He had just won California’s Democratic presidential primary. Kennedy—whose brother, President John F. Kennedy, had been assassinated less than five years earlier—was a complicated and important figure… -
opinion
Podcast: Ireland’s Abortion Vote
The Heritage Foundation’s Monica Burke joins us to discuss Ireland’s vote Friday on whether to repeal an amendment that banned legalizing abortion. We chat about the myths surrounding the vote, including that women’s health is dependent on legalized abortion. Plus: Starbucks across the nation closed today for racial sensitivity training. -
opinion
Thanks to Trump’s New Rule, Fewer Tax Dollars Will Go to Abortion Providers
Earlier this month, the Trump administration proposed new rules to finally bring federal policy back in line with federal law. This should not be controversial in a republic committed to the rule of law. But this new policy touches the question of abortion, which tempts all three branches of our federal government to turn truth,… -
news
HHS Pushes Back Against Narrative That It ‘Lost’ 1,500 Alien Children
The federal agency responsible for caring for unaccompanied alien children is pushing back against accusations that it has lost nearly 1,500 of them, knocking critics that “confuse and spread misinformation” about the issue. Most of the children were not lost, but were temporarily unaccounted for because their sponsors did not respond to inquiries from government… -
opinion
I Had an Abortion. Here’s the Message I Want to Share With Other Women.
Thirty years ago, I was a very young, divorced mother of two little girls. My ex-husband, the biological father of my daughters, had abandoned us, leaving me with no support and struggling to make ends meet. It was quite challenging to just put food on the table. I was working 12 to 14 hours a… -
opinion
Renewed US Leadership Blocks Abortion Agenda at the UN
For the third time in the past four years, the United Nations Commission on Population and Development has ended in failure—good news for defenders of national sovereignty in the face of hegemonic U.N. pressures. Negotiations concluded last Friday without producing an outcome document, which is the whole purpose of the two-week process. The outcome document would set forth political recommendations for governments to… -
news
Daily Signal Exclusive: HHS Secretary Alex Azar on 3 Steps to Combating the Opioid Crisis
Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar spoke to The Daily Signal’s Rob Bluey about the Trump administration’s response to the opioid crisis. Azar spoke Thursday at Generation Next, a White House forum for millennials. An edited transcript of his Daily Signal interview is below. Rob Bluey: You were with President Trump earlier this week in… -
opinion
7 Key Exchanges as Supreme Court Hears Case of Pregnancy Centers Forced to Promote Abortion
How far can a state go to promote its views on abortion? Can it force crisis pregnancy centers that support women who face a difficult or unplanned pregnancy to advertise the state’s free abortion program? Can it mandate resource centers that provide counseling, education, and baby supplies to include in their ads a lengthy disclaimer… -
news
CDC Warns the Opioid Crisis Is ‘Accelerating’ as Deaths Surge 30% Nationally
Opioid overdoses experienced another dramatic spike over the past year across every region of the country, according to a report from federal health officials. Data released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Tuesday show emergency room hospitalizations for opioid overdoses increased by 30 percent between the third quarters of 2016 and 2017 as opioid addiction… -
news
Young Woman Says Her Immigration Lawyers Pressured Her to Get an Abortion
An illegal immigrant held under federal protection has indicated that lawyers representing her have pressured her to abort the child she is carrying. The illegal immigrant charged that her guardians and legal attorneys, Rochelle Garza and Myles Garza, gave her documents Feb. 6 with information about seeking an abortion, according to recently court papers. The unnamed… -
news
We Asked Women’s March Attendees If They Support Any Limits on Abortion. Here’s What They Said.
At the second Women’s March held in the nation’s capital on Saturday, The Daily Signal asked attendees about their views on abortion. Do they support any restrictions? Are they in favor of laws that allow for abortion solely based on an unborn baby’s diagnosis of Down syndrome? Watch the video to hear their responses, and… -
news
In March for Life Address, Trump Prods Senate to Pass Late-Term Abortion Ban
President Donald Trump called on the Senate to vote on banning late-term abortions when delivering livestreamed remarks to the 45th March for Life in Washington. “I strongly supported the House of Representatives’ pain-capable bill, which would end painful late-term abortions nationwide, and I call upon the Senate to pass this important law and send it… -
news
More Than 3 in 4 Americans Support Limits on Abortion, Poll Finds
About 76 percent of Americans support stricter laws on abortion, according to a new Marist Poll, a finding that is part of a consistent trend in data the company has collected in the past decade. While 51 percent of respondents identified as pro-choice, 60 percent of them said they support limitations on abortions, such as… -
news
Why This Survivor of Saline Abortion Wants Congress to Pass ‘Born Alive’ Bill
As House lawmakers plan to vote on a bill to protect survivors of abortion the same week as the March for Life, one abortion survivor says she hopes Congress passes the measure to save babies who are left to die. “I survived my birth mother’s saline infusion abortion 40 years ago at St. Luke’s Hospital… -
opinion
Podcast: What Planned Parenthood’s New Report Shows About Abortion Giant
A new report from Planned Parenthood shows profits are up, and the number of abortions far outpace the number of prenatal services given. We discuss with The Heritage Foundation’s Melanie Israel, an expert in the pro-life area. Plus: France threatens to crack down on “fake news.” -
opinion
Media Smears Official Who Tried to Protect Immigrant Minor, Prevent Abortion
The radical pro-abortion lobby and its allies in the media are out to vilify and destroy Scott Lloyd. The New York Times calls him an “anti-abortion crusader.” A Washington Post columnist calls him an “anti-abortion zealot.” Meanwhile, in its news section, the Post underscores that Lloyd, who serves in the Trump administration as director of the Office of Refugee Resettlement, has six children. The National Abortion Rights Action League calls him… -
news
McConnell Says 20-Week Abortion Ban Has Full Backing of the Senate
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell announced that the 20-week abortion ban has the Senate’s full support following Monday’s presser on tax reform. “It’s supported by virtually all of my members and we expect to have a vote on it at some point,” said McConnell, R-Ky. The bill, the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, states that… -
opinion
To Prevent Painful Suffering for Children, Late-Term Abortion Should Be Banned
Five-year-old Micah Pickering made an appearance on Capitol Hill on Sept. 26 to put a face to the proposed Pain Capable Unborn Child Protection Act. The youngster came dressed for the occasion in a suit, vest, and tie. He held hands with his parents, Danielle and Clayton Pickering, from Iowa City, Iowa, as House Majority…