Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Hailey Bieber's Brain-Clot Event Focuses Attention On Strokes
NPR: Stroke Rates Are Increasing Among Young People. Here's What You Need To Know
Over the weekend, the model Hailey Bieber told her Instagram followers that she experienced stroke-like symptoms while at breakfast with her husband Thursday morning. Doctors found a small clot in her brain, she said, which caused "a small lack of oxygen." Bieber said on Instagram that her body passed the clot on its own, and she recovered within a few hours. Though Bieber recovered in her case, blood clots in the brain can lead to ischemic strokes, which make up a majority of all strokes. And among young people, stroke rates are on the rise. Here's what you need to know.
In other public health news —
The Texas Tribune: Ken Paxton Says Texas’ Investigations Of Trans Kids’ Families Can Continue
When a judge ruled Friday that Texas could not investigate parents for child abuse simply for providing gender-affirming care, it was immediately clear that the legal fight was far from over. That same night, Attorney General Ken Paxton filed an appeal and then announced on Twitter that the “Democrat judge’s order permitting child abuse is frozen.” He said that “[m]uch-needed investigations [will] proceed as they should,” and noted that his “fight will continue up to the Supreme Court.” Lawyers representing the families of transgender children said they don’t believe the appeal should affect the injunction. Legal experts say this case falls into a complicated corner of the law until the appeals court weighs in. (Klibanoff, 3/14)
Oklahoman: Transgender Oklahomans Sue Over State's Birth Certificate Policies
Three transgender Oklahomans who are seeking to alter the gender designation on their birth certificates are suing Gov. Kevin Stitt and the state's health commissioner over an executive order that they say blocks such changes. Stitt in November signed an executive order that barred the Oklahoma Health Department from issuing nonbinary or gender-neutral birth certificates. As a result, the health department says it cannot amend a person's gender marker on a state-issued birth certificate, even if the person presents a court order, according to the lawsuit. The agency previously required a court order from an Oklahoma court to change the sex designation on a birth certificate. (Forman, 3/14)
The Mercury News: Why Families Facing Anti-Transgender Persecution Are Moving To Colorado
She isn’t sure when, but someday soon her family will get in the car and travel from Houston to northern Colorado, where they’ll start a new life. She’s a fourth-generation Texan and all her close relatives live near her. She’s only been to Colorado a few times, and her family has zero friends here. But her eldest child, a 17-year-old boy, is transgender, and in Texas that now makes her a child abuser in the eyes of her governor, whose recent dictate has led to at least nine investigations of parents like her. Lawyers have advised she keep her name out of the news, lest she tip-off authorities. (Burness, 3/14)
