Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
In Washington, A Law Will Protect Trans Minors From Estranged Parents
AP: Trans Minors Protected From Parents Under Washington Law
Minors seeking gender-affirming care in Washington will be protected from the intervention of estranged parents under a measure Gov. Jay Inslee signed into law Tuesday. The new law is part of a wave of legislation this year in Democratic-led states intended to give refuge amid a conservative movement in which lawmakers in other states have attacked transgender rights and limited or banned gender-affirming care for minors. (Komenda, 5/9)
AP: Kansas City Considers Becoming LGBTQ Sanctuary City
A Kansas City Council committee will consider a resolution on Wednesday that would designate the city as a sanctuary for people seeking or providing gender-affirming care, even as the state’s attorney general is proposing a new restrictions on the procedures for adults and children. The resolution, which was proposed by LGTBQ advocates in Kansas City, says the city will not prosecute or fine any person or organization that seeks, provides, receives or helps someone receive gender-affirming care such as as puberty blockers, hormones and surgery. (Stafford, 5/10)
AP: Transgender Youth Sue Over Montana Gender-Affirming Care Ban
Two transgender children, their parents and two health care providers filed a lawsuit Tuesday arguing that a Montana law that would ban gender-affirming care for transgender youth is unconstitutional. The ban on puberty blockers, hormone treatment and surgical procedures applies only to transgender youth being treated for gender dysphoria, but that same care can be provided to cisgender adolescents for any other purpose, according to the complaint filed by the American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Montana and Lambda Legal. (Hanson, 5/9)
On drug use in Virginia and California —
AP: Youngkin Seeks Plan For Wastewater Surveillance Of Fentanyl
Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin signed an executive order Tuesday that directs state agencies to take 10 steps intended to bolster the fight against the fentanyl crisis, including setting up a plan to use wastewater surveillance to keep tabs on use of the drug. Fentanyl overdose deaths in Virginia have grown more than 20-fold since 2013, according to Youngkin’s executive order, which also states that since 2020, more Virginians have died from fatal drug overdoses than motor vehicle and gun-related deaths combined. (5/9)
Bay Area News Group: Santa Clara University Unveils Narcan Vending Machine
As lawmakers in Sacramento debate solutions to the fentanyl crisis, public health students at Santa Clara University unveiled their own unique approach on Tuesday: a free on-campus vending machine that dispenses canisters of the opioid-overdose reversing medication Narcan to anyone who wants it. It’s the first of its type on a Bay Area campus, with Stanford University expected to introduce one in a few weeks. (Nickerson, 5/9)
KFF Health News: California Confronts Overdose Epidemic Among Former Prison Inmates
Michael Vera walked into a bedroom of a residential drug treatment program in Los Angeles in March to find its occupant slumped over on his bed and struggling to breathe, a homemade straw on the floor beside him and tinfoil with what appeared to be drug residue under his body. The 35-year-old overdose victim had been out of custody less than 48 hours, in the midst of a frequently fatal danger zone: Individuals newly released from prison are 40 times as likely to die of opioid overdoses as members of the general population, researchers say. (Thompson, 5/10)
Mental health news from Alaska and North Carolina —
Anchorage Daily News: Reform To Involuntary Commitment Laws Passes The Senate, Highlighting Flaws In Alaska’s Mental Health Services
The Alaska Senate has passed a bill that aims to close the loopholes that allowed a known offender to stab an Anchorage woman while she was in a public library last year. Angela Harris was at Anchorage’s Loussac Library last February when a man named Corey Ahkivgak stabbed her in the back. Ahkivgak had randomly attacked two other women in Midtown Anchorage two months earlier, but he had been found incompetent to stand trial on those charges and allowed to walk free. (Samuels, 5/9)
North Carolina Health News: Psych Hospital Failed To Provide 'Safe And Therapeutic' Environment
Federal regulators have threatened to terminate Medicare funding to a psychiatric hospital in eastern North Carolina after a series of visits to the facility, which started with a complaint alleging mistreatment and sexual assault of an 11-year-old patient. State regulators made a surprise visit to Brynn Marr Hospital, a privately owned facility in Jacksonville, after news reports late last year detailing the alleged mistreatment and assault of the child. (Knopf, 5/10)
Other health news from Maine and Texas —
USA Today: Maine Reports First Case Of Measles Since 2019; Child Tests Positive
Maine health officials say they received a report of a child testing positive for measles, the first such case in the state since 2019. The Maine Department of Health and Human Services announced in a Friday news release it was notified of a positive measles test result, adding it was awaiting confirmation from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (Guzman, 5/9)
Houston Chronicle: Texas Leads US In Babies Born With Syphilis, Numbers Increasing
The number of babies born with syphilis in the U.S. continued its upward climb in 2021, new data shows, worrying doctors and public health investigators in Texas who have been trying to draw attention to what they say is a largely hidden crisis. (Gill, 5/9)
KFF Health News: An Outdated Tracking System Is A Key Factor In Texas’ Foster Care Shortcomings
The decades-old system Texas foster care officials use to track and monitor the health records of the nearly 20,000 children in their custody is both outdated and unreliable — so much so, advocates say, that children have been harmed or put at risk. And those deficiencies persist despite a 2015 order by a federal judge that state leaders fix the system’s deficiencies. “The frustration with IMPACT is well known,” said Texas state Rep. Gene Wu, a Democrat from Houston, referring to the aging software. (DeGuzman, 5/10)
