Issue Brief

Pregnancy, giving birth, and being postpartum while incarcerated are linked to negative health impacts as people who are incarcerated are not provided adequate prenatal and postpartum care, and experience trauma from the experience. One policy that supports the health of pregnant people who are incarcerated is mandating access to safe and effective abortion care for those who do not want to be pregnant or give birth while incarcerated. This issue brief examines current state laws regarding access to abortion in carceral facilities in the states where abortion is generally available by law.

In recent years, federal, state, and local child welfare agencies have begun to develop data sharing policies and practices to support sharing child welfare data with other agencies. These agencies intend to use data sharing to enhance the government’s ability to coordinate and improve the provision of social services. This issue brief explores the relationships between child welfare, public health, data sharing, and racial and income disparities. It includes recommendations for agencies, community partnerships, and policy researchers to incorporate into the development of data sharing and use practices to reduce the risk of further perpetuating harm against vulnerable communities.

As a result of the Supreme Court decision in Dobbs, advocates on both sides of the abortion issue turned to state constitutions to determine the contours of a right to abortion or to make clear no such right exists under state law. When abortion was on the ballot in 2022, voters in several states rallied to enshrine the right to abortion in state constitutions and rejected attempts to further restrict abortions in their states. In the wake of these successful ballot measures, state legislators throughout the country have sought to amend ballot initiative processes ahead of the 2024 elections. This fact sheet outlines recent proposed amendments by several states that are intended to thwart pro-abortion ballot initiatives.

Renewed governmental focus on chronic disease prevention can provide a new impetus to enhance public health data collection for non-communicable diseases, building on recent progress in standardizing and modernizing infectious disease surveillance. Although public health has previously emphasized survey-based surveillance to assess chronic disease prevalence within communities, increased access to individual data in electronic health records could provide more timely and comprehensive information for responsive interventions. This resource reviews how public health authority generally supports expanding reporting requirements to encompass non-communicable diseases. However, as jurisdictions expand collection of individual data about chronic conditions, they should also ensure appropriate confidentiality safeguards in order to maintain public trust. 

This Issue Brief, part of a series of analyses looking at resolutions declaring racism a public health crisis in each region of the country, summarizes resolutions in the western U.S. states of Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Texas, Utah, and Washington. This analysis focuses primarily on resolutions passed by state and local governments, including city councils, county boards, city and county executives, school boards, and boards of health.

Data sharing across correctional and community systems is complex and laden with risk, but failure to share data entails risk as well given the vital role data plays in effective pre- and post-release services to support youth during a particularly unsafe period. Thus, data sharing partners must not shy away from the admittedly hard work of navigating these challenges. Rather, partners must work towards effective and equitable cross-sector data sharing, recognizing the value of disclosure and the imperative of safeguarding privacy. This work necessitates community-driven, empowering data sharing that protects against further entanglement of punitive systems in health and social care.  This resource is intended to assist states implementing the youth-focused Medicaid and CHIP reforms in navigating these data sharing challenges. It identifies the important role of data sharing in reentry services and highlights the different roadblocks that those engaged in data sharing may encounter. It then identifies legal, ethical, and practical considerations for designing equitable data sharing systems that center the voices of impacted youth and protect against further entanglement of punitive systems in health and social care.

Fewer than 10 percent of births in the United States involve a doula. Increasing access to safe and effective doula care could decrease the high maternal morbidity and mortality rate in the U.S. This issue brief examines the role of doulas, state regulation of doulas, and how to expand doula care access and coverage through policy.

This Issue Brief, part of a series of analyses looking at resolutions declaring racism a public health crisis in each region of the country, summarizes resolutions in the northern U.S. states of Idaho, Iowa, Minnesota, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wisconsin, and Wyoming. This analysis focuses primarily on resolutions passed by state and local governments, including city councils, county boards, city and county executives, school boards, and boards of health.

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, Public Law 104-191 (HIPAA) applies to many local public health departments (LHDs). This issue brief helps public health practitioners, and their attorneys understand how HIPAA applies to LPHDs, the steps an LPHD must take to become a HIPAA hybrid entity, and discusses how these decisions directly impact data sharing, operations, compliance burden, and risk.

Individuals returning from incarceration have more healthcare needs than the general population but face numerous barriers to receiving care. Specially trained community members with lived experience of incarceration, serving in the role of community health worker (CHW), are uniquely effective at engaging returning community members in health services. This issue brief provides examples of key legal barriers that may be encountered by individuals with incarceration histories who are seeking employment as CHWs along with ways in which policymakers and health systems can address these barriers.

This issue brief examines the end of multiple COVID-19 enhanced government authorities and the significant implications related to the cost and availability of COVID-19 vaccines and tests, telehealth and HIPAA flexibilities, Medicare and Medicaid expansions, private health insurance coverages, and immigration policies.

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.