Advocates for Youth is strongly opposed to South Dakota’s “puberty blocker bill” and similar proposed laws around the nation which ban transgender children and young people from access to hormones which delay puberty, a tool to help affirm identity.
Advocates for Youth condemns in the strongest possible terms the State Department’s new regulation concerning the denial of visas to people who are pregnant or simply appear to be pregnant. It is the purest violation of basic human rights for people to have their bodies scrutinized by officials, their motives for visiting impugned, and their personal testimony that they are not pregnant ignored.
“We’re not surprised to learn that more than 200 Republican members of the United States Congress have signed a letter openly requesting the Supreme Court to overturn Roe v. Wade. These politicians have no regard for women’s autonomy, health, and lives.
This morning, the Trump Administration finalized a rule that will take insurance coverage of abortion away from millions of patients. The rule requires that plans on the Affordable Care Act exchanges offer separate coverage for abortion. It places burdensome regulations on insurers, dissuading them from offering abortion coverage, and will cause confusion among people who access their health plan through the ACA marketplaces, leading to people no longer having coverage they may need.
Today, the Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine (SAHM) and the North American Society for Pediatric and Adolescent Gynecology (NASPAG) issued a joint statement taking the position that so-called “crisis pregnancy centers” (CPCs) are a health risk for young people.
SAHM and NASPAG confirmed what young people have known for years: that CPCs draw young people in with misleading advertising, but do not provide abortion or contraception care or referrals. Further, these centers provide misleading and biased information about reproductive health.
Advocates for Youth applauds the introduction of the Health Equity and Access under the Law (HEAL) for Immigrant Women and Families Act. The bill would remove the 5 year waiting period that all federally authorized immigrants must currently endure to gain access to Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP). The HEAL for Immigrant Women and Families Act would also allow Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients and undocumented immigrants to buy plans on the Affordable Care Act (ACA) marketplaces with access to financial assistance.