Fact Sheet

Incarcerated workers across the U.S. provide valuable goods and services, producing items used in state and local government agencies and engaging in work like road repair, firefighting, and post-disaster clean-up. They generate more than $2 billion a year in goods and $9 billion a year in services, but are not covered by typical workplace protections, like minimum wage and workplace safety laws. It is important for states to strike a balance between the requirements for prison labor and protecting the health and well-being of incarcerated people. This Fact Sheet summarizes prison procurement laws in states in the Network’s Southeastern Region, prompted by a question from the state of Virginia.

Variations among jurisdictions in determining and reporting causes of death and delays in obtaining and reporting fatality data often result in an incomplete and out-of-date view of the overdose epidemic in the U.S. It is imperative that health departments, harm reduction organizations, and people who use drugs are provided with accurate, timely and actionable information on drug-related overdose. This fact sheet provides a snapshot of current laws, regulations, and sub-regulatory sources governing mandatory disease reporting and a description of the laws and regulations governing reporting of overdoses in the jurisdictions that require or explicitly permit it as of March 31, 2023.

This fact sheet details the state laws that require private insurers to cover at least one formulation of naloxone and those that reduce barriers to access naloxone where it is covered. Because these laws were written during a time when no over the counter (OTC) naloxone formulations were available, none explicitly require coverage for OTC naloxone.

Black Maternal Health refers to the well-being of Black women during the prenatal period, pregnancy, and the postnatal period. Black women in the United States experience significantly disparate maternal health outcomes including disproportionately high rates of death related to pregnancy or childbirth compared to other racial and ethnic groups. This fact provides an overview of the state of Black maternal health in Pennsylvania and opportunities to improve Black health outcomes in the state.

Black Maternal Health refers to the well-being of Black women during the prenatal period, pregnancy, and the postnatal period. Black women in the United States experience significantly disparate maternal health outcomes including disproportionately high rates of death related to pregnancy or childbirth compared to other racial and ethnic groups. This fact provides an overview of the state of Black maternal health in New Jersey and opportunities to improve Black health outcomes in the state.

Black Maternal Health refers to the well-being of Black women during the prenatal period, pregnancy, and the postnatal period. Black women in the United States experience significantly disparate maternal health outcomes including disproportionately high rates of death related to pregnancy or childbirth compared to other racial and ethnic groups. This fact provides an overview of the state of Black maternal health in Maryland and opportunities to improve Black health outcomes in the state.

The federal COVID-19 Public Health Emergency (PHE) implemented changes that enabled people to stay on Medicaid. Most significantly, in 2020, Congress enacted the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA), which required states to keep people continuously enrolled in Medicaid through the end of the month in which the PHE ended. This fact sheet outlines how the unwinding of the continuous coverage period has a high risk of discriminatory impact on certain populations which are often the same ones facing significant harm from coverage loss.

In the aftermath of the overturning of Roe v. Wade, one abortion case involving a 10-year-old rape victim called into question issues of privacy when the attorney general in the case sought access to the minor’s abortion records. The case illustrates how, in the legal tug of war over abortion, health information may be weaponized against providers and individuals seeking or obtaining reproductive health services. This fact sheet explores actions taken at all levels of government to enhance protections of abortion-related health records and data.

Between May 2020 and April 2021, 64% of overdose deaths in the nation involved synthetic opioids, primarily illicitly manufactured fentanyl, which is 50 to 100 times more potent than morphine. A low-cost, high-impact harm reduction strategy for reducing the risk of overdose due to fentanyl contamination comes in the form of fentanyl test strips (“FTS”).At the price of approximately one dollar per disposable strip, FTS can detect the presence of fentanyl and many fentanyl analogs in drug samples dissolved in water. This fact sheet briefly discusses the emerging evidence that supports the broad distribution of FTS as one tool to reduce fentanyl-related harm.

The majority of abortions in the U.S. are medical abortions, a safe and effective method for early pregnancy, initiated by patients using a medication regimen. Medical abortions, also called chemical abortions or abortion pills, are one of the new battlegrounds on which political and legal wars are being fought. This fact sheet provides information on the drug regimen for medication abortion and current legal challenges to their use.

Medication abortion (or the “abortion pill”) generally refers to the use of two medications—mifepristone and misoprostol—to safely end an early pregnancy. Importantly, it does not refer to use of Plan B emergency contraceptive; in December 2022, FDA updated Plan B’s packaging insert to expressly acknowledge that it functions to prevent conception, not to end a pregnancy. In 2020, medication abortion was used for 53 percent of all U.S. abortions. However, since the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision on June 24, 2022, 15 states have implemented near-total abortion bans (though bans in select states including Indiana, Ohio, and Wyoming are currently blocked by state courts).

This first piece focuses on the concrete harms that result from the development of laws, policies, and practices produced without meaningful efforts to engage with communities, highlighting some of the real-world impacts of inequitable practices with respect to drought, wildfires, flooding, and extreme heat. The examples provided are starting points for thinking through how things have gone wrong, where change may be needed, and opportunities for successful collaboration.