Tag Archives: HHS

Politico reports: The surgeon general Thursday issued an advisory cautioning young people and pregnant people against using marijuana, warning it poses risks to developing brains. HHS officials said the best science available suggests no amount of marijuana use during pregnancy or for youth is known to be safe. Surgeon General Jerome Adams’ advisory was the first his office issued on …

The Washington Post reports: When President Trump targeted mental illness as the cause of the mass shootings in El Paso and Dayton that killed 31 people, federal health officials made sure no government experts might contradict him. A Health and Human Services directive on Aug. 5 warned communication staffers not to post anything on social media related to mental health, …

NBC News reports: The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is delaying the implementation of its “conscience protection” rule until November to give the administration more time to deal with a lawsuit over the policy. HHS announced in a court filing Saturday that the rule, which was originally scheduled to take effect July 22, would not be implemented until …

Via press release from the ACLU: The National Family Planning & Reproductive Health Association (NFPRHA), Public Health Solutions (PHS), The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), and the New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU) filed a lawsuit today challenging the Trump administration’s rule that allows health care personnel to deny patients information and treatment based on personal religious or moral beliefs. …

Via press release from hate group leader Tony Perkins: In an HHS announcement that has pro-lifers cheering, Secretary Alex Azar confirmed that the agency was canceling a $2 million-a-year contract with the University of California that had been in place since 2013. “Promoting the dignity of human life from conception to natural death is one of the very top priorities …

ABC News reports: The Trump administration said Wednesday it is ending medical research by government scientists using human fetal tissue, overriding the advice of scientists that there’s no other way to tackle some health problems and handing abortion opponents a major victory. Fetal tissue is used in research on HIV and childhood cancers, treatments that enlist the body’s immune system …

Just in via press release: Today, Americans United for Separation of Church and State, the Center for Reproductive Rights and Lambda Legal filed a lawsuit challenging the “Denial of Care” Rule issued earlier this month by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. In the lawsuit (County of Santa Clara vs. HHS), filed in the U.S. District Court for …

The Washington Post reports: President Trump on Thursday announced new ‘conscience’ protections for health providers during a speech in front of faith leaders gathered for the National Day of Prayer. Ahead of the announcement, conservative groups who have raised what they perceive as religious liberty concerns have welcomed the rule, which was first proposed last year, while LGBT and other …

From the Heritage Foundation’s Daily Signal blog: The founder of an organization of community care clinics that cater to women praises the Trump administration for deciding to give her group $5.1 million over three years for use in California, a grant that once might have gone to Planned Parenthood. “With this grant, the administration has opened up a new avenue …

Peter Montgomery reports at Right Wing Watch: The push by the Department of Health and Human Services to impose a trans-denying definition of “sex” onto federal civil rights law “would essentially eradicate federal recognition” of an estimated 1.4 million transgender Americans, according to the Times story. The effort is being led by Roger Severino, who has taken the anti-LGBT agenda …

The New York Times reports: Activists in the L.G.B.T. community mobilized a fast and fierce campaign on Sunday to say transgender people cannot be expunged from society, in response to an unreleased Trump administration memo that proposes a strict definition of gender based on a person’s genitalia at birth. The existence of the memo, the administration’s latest effort to roll …

Yahoo News reports: The Department of Health and Human Services is diverting millions of dollars in funding from a number of programs, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institutes of Health, to pay for housing for the growing population of detained immigrant children. In a letter sent to Sen. Patty Murray, D.-Wash., and obtained by …

Just in from the Democratic National Committee: Today, the Sunlight Foundation reported that the Trump-Pence administration’s Department of Health and Human Services removed and altered language from its website on the provision of the Affordable Care Act that prohibits discrimination in health care services.  The move limits access to information and resources that protect women and LGBTQ people, particularly transgender …

Talking Points Memo reports: Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar told reporters on a conference call on Thursday that his department will meet the deadlines imposed by federal courts to reunify thousands of immigrant children who were taken from their families and detained in separate facilities, but admitted they have yet to send a single child to rejoin their …

NBC News reports: The Trump administration has selected Tornillo, Texas, for the construction of tents to house the overflow of immigrant children, many of whom have been separated from their parents under a new “zero tolerance” policy, according to three sources familiar with the decision. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) will erect a “tent city,” full of …

Politico has published a deep dive into the myriad ways the Trump administration is rolling back, curtailing, or completely ignoring the many pro-LGBT advances won during the Obama administration. The piece begins: The nation’s health department is taking steps to dismantle LGBT health initiatives, as political appointees have halted or rolled back regulations intended to protect LGBT workers and patients, …

ABC News reports: The Trump administration announced on Thursday a new division within the Department of Health and Human Services devoted to “conscience and religious freedom.” Social conservatives and religious liberty leaders have anticipated conscience and religious freedom protections to come out of HHS, and the work of the new division, which will fall under the purview of the Office …

Politico reports: The Trump administration is poised to overhaul the HHS civil rights office as part of a broader plan to protect health workers who don’t want to perform abortions, treat transgender patients seeking to transition or provide other services for which they have religious or moral objections. Under a proposed rule — which has been closely guarded at HHS …

USA Today reports: President Trump said Monday he would name former pharmaceutical company executive Alex Azar as secretary of Health and Human Services. If confirmed by the Senate, Azar would replace Tom Price, who resigned in September amid a scandal over his use of charter aircraft for personal and official travel. It’s the first time Trump has had to replace …

CNBC reports: The Trump administration is expanding exemptions to an Affordable Care Act rule requiring employers to include birth control coverage in health plans. On Friday, the Departments of Health and Human Services, Treasury and Labor issued “interim final rules” to make more entities exempt from providing plans that cover contraceptives without a co-payment. They will create what a senior …