�������ýҕ�l

Indiana lawmakers have inserted themselves into the ongoing conversation over health care prices in the state, which are among the highest in the nation, asking hospital and insurance leaders to work together to develop a plan to lower the cost of medical care. Saying that they have the “utmost respect” for health care workers, Senate President Rodric Bray and Speaker of the House Todd Huston direct about 20 letter recipients to work together to match Indiana’s health care costs to the national average by 2025. The legislative leaders say if the letter’s recipients have not come up with a viable plan by April, they will have “no choice but to pursue legislation to statutorily reduce prices.” (Rudavsky and Lange, 1/24)

Honduran immigrant Sergio Tulio Arévalo Soliz suffered chest pains, heart palpitations and shortness of breath for four days before arriving at Adventist Health Hospital in Hanford on Jan. 6. Doctors told the 42-year-old Soliz he needed emergency heart surgery but the undocumented Fresno County farmworker is uninsured and doesn’t qualify for full-scope Medi-Cal. He couldn’t afford to pay for the surgery, so he told the doctor to discharge him. (Lopez, 1/23)

Montgomery Garnett clung to his incense, quietly attempting to convince Los Angeles police officers that he was breaking no law by sitting on the sidewalk. Every day he lights incense on the same corner in the heart of the Skid Row neighborhood, less than a mile from the trendy Japanese restaurants of Little Tokyo and the hip haunts of the Arts District. Across the street, a small dog barked as a woman yelled from her tent: “He needs housing!” (Lozano, 1/23)

Two bills filed in the Mississippi Senate seek to place new restrictions on transgender children, which could further discrimination and attacks against members of the trans community, advocates say. The bills, filed by senators Chad McMahan, R-Guntown, and Angela Hill, R-Picayune, are wildly different from one another, but both would limit a young person's ability to express their gender identity. "It’s another example of how trans people are under attack in this country and Mississippi is no exception," said Rob Hill, state director for the Human Rights Campaign in Mississippi. "It’s pretty disappointing the response from lawmakers is to file bills to embolden hateful people and increase stigma for a group of already vulnerable people." (Sanderlin, 1/24)

Each year, thousands of women cross state lines to have an abortion in Illinois — and that number could grow exponentially as pending U.S. Supreme Court decisions and new laws in various states challenge reproductive rights across large swaths of the nation. But women traveling here to terminate a pregnancy will have a new resource designed to make the process easier: Two southern Illinois abortion providers have partnered to create one centralized location where patients can get assistance with travel needs like finding transportation, booking lodging and setting up child care. (Lourgos, 1/21)

It didn’t take long for abortion to re-emerge as a flashpoint in state legislatures. Less than a month into the 2022 legislative sessions, battles over the future of abortion already are setting up around the U.S. Republican lawmakers are proposing new restrictions modeled after laws in Texas and Mississippi that present a direct challenge to the landmark Roe v. Wade decision, while some Democratic-led states are working to preserve or expand access. (Whitehurst, 1/22)

Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. said last month that the United States was an international outlier in allowing abortion more than halfway through pregnancy. That later cutoff, he said, places the United States in the company of North Korea and China. It’s true in some ways, but not all. Few countries allow abortion without restriction until fetal viability, the cutoff set by Roe v. Wade, which was decided 49 years ago today. Because of medical advances, that is now around 23 weeks. And only around a dozen other countries allow abortions for any reason beyond 15 weeks of pregnancy, the threshold in the Mississippi law the Supreme Court is considering, which could overturn Roe. (Miller and Sanger-Katz, 1/22)