Latest news with #HHS
Daily Mirror
5 hours ago
- Health
- Daily Mirror
Trump administration scrap suicide helpline for LGBTQ+ youths
LGBTQ+ organisations have described the defunding of the suicide prevention service as "devastating" as Trump's administration plans to close helpline within 30 days The Trump administration is set to shut down a US national suicide prevention hotline for LGBTQ young people in funding cuts. American non-profit suicide prevention organisation, The Trevor Project has described scrapping the the helpline as "devastating", but the administration has cited the service as "radical gender ideology". The suicide prevention service in place for LGBTQ young people says it will soon close, but a 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline will remain active with an option for LGBTQ youths available. The service has reassured that anyone calling will be treated with "compassion' and helped, but the hotline cuts to specific LGBTQ people has raised concerns for many. The Trevor Project has helped to run the LGBTQ+ helpline option, and the organisation has said the recent decision will be harmful, impacting vulnerable young people the most. Chief executive of The Trevor Project, Jaymes Black said 'suicide prevention is about people, not politics' and expressed concern at the announcement that the LGBTQ suicide prevention hotline will close down in 30 days time. Mr Black said: "The administration's decision to remove a bipartisan, evidence-based service that has effectively supported a high-risk group of young people through their darkest moments is incomprehensible." The funding cuts to the service in place for this 'high risk' group coincides with international Pride Month, where LGBTQ lifestyle and history is celebrated across the world. Cities across the globe feature Pride processions and events honouring LGBTQ culture in society. The news of axing the service also came in ahead of a US Supreme Court decision on June 17 concerning minors who identify as transgender. The state of Tennessee upheld a ban on healthcare help when transitioning. The general 988 Lifeline will still offer a helpline for anyone who is struggling with mental health. It provides free mental health support via call, texts, or a chat service. The 988 Lifeline is funded by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration in America. Any LGBTQ young people calling through currently can select option 3 from the menu to connect with specialised counsellors. Once the changes occur (in 30 days time) the general 988 Lifeline service will instead "focus on serving all help seekers", including LGBTQ young people. However, when the changes are in place, the hotline will no longer have a separate helpline for LGBTQ youth services. Officials from the United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) proposed the cuts to the 988 Lifeline's LGBTQ youth services in June 2025. Speaking to NBC News at the time, a HHS spokesperson said the specialised LGBTQ+ option was a "chat service where children are encouraged to embrace radical gender ideology by 'counsellors' without consent or knowledge of their parents". LGBTQ youth are "more than four times more likely to contemplate suicide than their peers, with 1 in 5 LGBTQ youth and more than 1 in 3 transgender youth reporting attempting suicide" reports suggest. But the helpline cuts come amid Trump's push to curtail other services specifically for transgender people across the government. Trump recently ordered the removal of transgender service people from the US military - and issued an executive order. The order being that the American government would only recognise males and females as 'two sexes' in society.
CNN
7 hours ago
- Health
- CNN
Trump administration's guidance on emergency care law adds to ‘chaos,' not clarity, in states with strict abortion laws, some doctors say
Abortion rights Maternal health Women's healthFacebookTweetLink Follow Federal guidance that the Trump administration says is intended to offer clarity is instead leaving health care providers even more confused about whether they can provide an abortion in an emergency, particularly in states with strict abortion laws. This month, the Trump administration rescinded 2022 federal guidance specifying that under the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act, or EMTALA, people should be able to get an abortion if a medical emergency makes it necessary, even in states with laws that restrict such procedures. HHS and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services said they would continue to enforce the federal law, specifying that the policy included emergency medical conditions that placed the health of a pregnant woman or her unborn child in serious jeopardy. Then, in a letter to health care providers last week, US Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. emphasized that under EMTALA, stabilizing care should be given to a person who is pregnant and having a medical emergency – but it doesn't specify what that care might involve. In the June 13 letter, Kennedy says that it was the 2022 memo that 'created confusion. But that is no more.' Some doctors beg to differ. It's unclear exactly what the recision of the previous guidance meant for emergency care, particularly in states with highly restrictive abortion laws, some doctors said. The latest letter doesn't mention abortion at all — and the absence of specifics is creating more uncertainty. 'I do think this just contributes to all of the chaos that clinicians are having to deal with as they just attempt to take care of the patient in front of them and navigate state laws and federal guidance to provide care for patients,' said Dr. Nisha Verma, a practicing obstetrician-gynecologist and senior adviser for reproductive health policy and advocacy at the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, a professional organization that represents the majority of practitioners in the United States. 'It's not something you want to get wrong, because the consequences are so severe and it feels so scary.' Verma appreciates that the new letter from Kennedy clarifies that EMTALA is still the law of the land, even after the administration rescinded the 2022 guidance. But without a specific mention of abortion, she said, the nation's patchwork of laws makes it difficult for doctors to navigate emergency situations. Some of those state laws could even send doctors to jail if they make the wrong decision about when an emergency necessitates an abortion. 'I think it was helpful to specify abortion is covered under EMTALA' in the 2022 guidance, Verma said. 'I do think that having that language specifically in this really scary, chilling environment was helpful.' Dr. Alison Haddock, an emergency room doctor who is president of American College of Emergency Physicians, said she was happy that Kennedy's letter confirmed that pregnant patients need access to care and that it included examples of common problems like miscarriages, ectopic pregnancies and premature rupture of membranes. 'Those are some of the situations that have been really challenging for our physicians. Noting that those can represent an obstetric emergency where EMTALA would apply is really good to see,' Haddock said. But she added that the Trump administration's guidance does not clear up everything. 'I think physicians are still going to have issues with conflicting state law where they are still going to be left in a gray area of uncertainty about how to balance adhering to EMTALA and adhering to state law, and that's going to leave patients in the same place,' Haddock said. Trips to the emergency room are common for pregnant people, studies show. The majority of emergency providers say they treat pregnant patients in virtually every shift, according to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, and in some circumstances, treatment to protect a pregnant person's health or life may require an abortion. Pregnancy emergencies don't always happen during standard work hours, Haddock said, and the 'ability to convene the ethics committee at 2 a.m. is very limited, and then it can be a lot of layers to get through at the hospital.' Haddock said her association sent a letter to its members encouraging them to advocate for clearer guidance from their own hospitals. 'Achieving greater clarity on this is really important to make sure physicians feel like they have the protections they need to provide lifesaving medical care,' she added. Specifics have been important when it comes to EMTALA. When it became federal law in 1986, some hospitals refused to care for uninsured women in labor, so in 1989, Congress spelled out that pregnant people who were having contractions had to be given emergency care even if they couldn't pay for it. In 2021, guidance from the Biden administration added more specifics, saying it was a doctor's duty to provide stabilizing treatment that 'preempts any directly conflicting state law or mandate that might otherwise prohibit or prevent such treatment.' However, it wasn't until the 2022 guidance that it was spelled out that an abortion had to be provided when necessary. The Biden administration guidance was meant to eliminate confusion in states with anti-abortion laws that did not include an exception for the life or health of a pregnant person, and it stated that federal law preempted the state statutes in the case of such laws. That memo was issued just weeks after the US Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, the 1973 ruling that gave pregnant people a constitutional right to an abortion. A case before the court last year would have clarified whether federal law requires health care services to provide access to emergency care in every state, regardless of abortion laws, but the high court sent it back to the lower courts. In March, the Trump administration dropped the lawsuit. Some legal experts interpreted that as a signal that the administration would not enforce EMTALA. Even when the 2022 guidance was in place, provider surveys in states that criminalized abortion found that doctors were operating in 'chaos and confusion,' said Payal Shah, director of research, legal and advocacy with the Physicians for Human Rights a Nobel Peace Prize-winning medical and human rights organization. Providers were still having a hard time determining whether EMTALA really would protect them if they had to perform an abortion, even in an emergency situation. 'Criminalization causes fear, and then clinicians feel paralyzed,' Shah said. 'They don't feel like they have the authority to make decisions about reproductive health care in line with their medical judgment and medical ethics and pregnant patients' preferences. Instead, it becomes a legal decision.' After the Dobbs decision removed the federal right to an abortion in 2022, some women died after doctors told them it would be a 'crime' to intervene in a miscarriage or they couldn't access timely medical care. Idaho's strict abortion law has led some doctors to tell pregnant patients that they should consider buying 'life flight insurance' in case a local hospital wouldn't be able to take care of a pregnancy complication. Rescinding the 2022 guidance will probably make stories like these more common, several experts said. 'Rescinding this guidance serves no purpose other than to try to strengthen or deepen that confusion,' Shah said. 'This is an attempt to gaslight the American public and to say that criminalization of abortion is working. Criminalization is not working, and that is something the evidence really shows.' Alexa Kolbi-Molinas, deputy director of the ACLU's Reproductive Freedom Project, interprets the new HHS letter to mean the law does require emergency abortion care, but she added that the administration's actions on the matter 'have been reckless at best and outright dangerous at worst.' 'The Trump administration is scrambling to clean up a mess entirely of its own making,' Kolbi-Molinas said in an email. 'The law has been clear for forty years: pregnant patients who go to a hospital in medical crisis must receive health- and lifesaving care, regardless of state law. If the administration had not rescinded the previous guidance reaffirming hospitals' obligations to provide this care earlier this month, there would have been no need to issue Friday's letter.' HHS did not respond to direct questions about what 'stabilizing care' meant and whether its interpretation of EMTALA included abortion as stabilizing care. Instead, a spokesperson for the agency sent a link to a June 4 message on X from Dr. Mehmet Oz, administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. 'Don't believe the spin and fearmongering of the fake news,' the post said. 'The Biden Administration created confusion, but EMTALA is clear and the law has not changed: women will receive care for miscarriage, ectopic pregnancy, and medical emergencies in all fifty states- this has not and will never change in the Trump Administration.' 'To me, this question remains: Why won't they use the word 'abortion' if they really believe that abortion is sometimes part of emergency medical care for pregnant people? They won't do it,' said Rebecca Hart Holder, president of Reproductive Equity Now. 'If the Trump administration or Secretary Kennedy truly intended to reassure providers that abortion in the case of a medical emergency, is protected under EMTALA, they would have used those words explicitly as a qualifying example of emergency medical care,' Hart Holder added. 'I think it's a fair assumption to make that even more people are going to die when they're in emergency situations.' In the wake of Dobbs, the Kennedy letter presents another potential problem, said reproductive law expert Rolonda Donelson. 'In the letter, he mentions that EMTALA requires caring for the pregnant woman and their unborn child. Pre-Dobbs, that might not have meant much, but post-Dobbs, with the rise in fetal personhood in state abortion bans, it raises questions on whether the providers in these emergency departments have any duty to the unborn fetus and whether they can provide this emergency stabilizing care when it conflicts with their state abortion ban,' said Donelson, the Huber Reproductive Health Equity Legal Fellow at the National Partnership for Women & Families. 'This guidance does not provide any clarification. It increases chaos and confusion among patients, providers and everyone on whether they can go into an emergency department if they're experiencing a medical emergency and receive an abortion as necessary stabilizing care.' In March, concerned that even more clarity was needed, 88 lawmakers reintroduced a resolution that affirmed EMTALA protects access to emergency abortion care. But even if such a bill were to make its way through Congress, it's unclear whether Trump would sign it. In the absence of additional legislation, legal experts say, the confusion will continue placing an unfair burden on doctors and patients. 'It's unrealistic to have doctors who should be saving patient lives and doing all of those important things to try and also be lawyers and policy advocates and figure out the nitty gritty of what these things mean,' Donelson said. But it's important for patients to know, she said, that they should go to an emergency room if they are experiencing a medical emergency. 'The last thing I would want is a pregant person who is experiencing a medical emergency to think that they won't be able to get care at a hospital and forgo going and then something bad happen to them.'
CNN
19 hours ago
- Health
- CNN
Infectious disease expert explains why she resigned from the CDC
Former CDC infectious disease expert Dr. Fiona Havers tells CNN's Jake Tapper why she resigned her post as a senior vaccine adviser, citing concerns about changes to the agency's vaccine processes under US Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
CNN
19 hours ago
- Health
- CNN
Infectious disease expert explains why she resigned from the CDC
Former CDC infectious disease expert Dr. Fiona Havers tells CNN's Jake Tapper why she resigned her post as a senior vaccine adviser, citing concerns about changes to the agency's vaccine processes under US Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
BBC News
a day ago
- Health
- BBC News
Trump administration ends LGBT youth option on US suicide hotline
A part of a US national suicide prevention hotline that caters for LGBT young people says it will soon close, after the Trump administration cut its administration has accused the service of "radical gender ideology". It says it will still fund the wider 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline - of which the LGBT youth option is one part - and that all callers will receive "compassion and help".The Trevor Project, an organisation that helped to run the LGBT option, said the decision would have a harmful impact on vulnerable young people. "Suicide prevention is about people, not politics," said Jaymes Black, the organisation's CEO. He said his service had been told to close within 30 days."The administration's decision to remove a bipartisan, evidence-based service that has effectively supported a high-risk group of young people through their darkest moments is incomprehensible," Mr Black decision comes during international Pride Month, which celebrates LGBT culture and news also arrived ahead of a US Supreme Court decision on Tuesday that upheld the state of Tennessee's ban on transition-related healthcare for minors who identify as general 988 Lifeline offers free mental health support via call, text, or chat. It is funded by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), a subsidiary of the US Health and Human Services Agency (HHS). Currently, LGBT young people can select option 3 from a call menu in order to connect with the changes, the remaining 988 Lifeline services would "focus on serving all help seekers", including those who previously chose to access LGBT youth services, SAMHSA said. But the hotline would "no longer silo LGB+ youth services", SAMHSA wrote in a statement, omitting the "T" that refers to transgender people in the LGBT at HHS proposed cutting the 988 Lifeline's LGBT youth services last a statement to NBC News at the time, an HHS spokesperson described the option as a "chat service where children are encouraged to embrace radical gender ideology by 'counselors' without consent or knowledge of their parents". Supreme Court upholds Tennessee ban on gender transition care for minors Legislation passed in 2020 by the US Congress required the 988 Lifeline to provide services and staff specifically for LGBT people as well as other at-risk groups like rural and Native legislation noted that LGBT youth were "more than 4 times more likely to contemplate suicide than their peers, with 1 in 5 LGBT youth and more than 1 in 3 transgender youth reporting attempting suicide".The law received bipartisan support - including from Donald Trump, who was then serving his first presidential term, and signed the bill into to the 988 Lifeline website, LGBT communities are "disproportionately at risk for suicide and other mental health struggles due to historic and ongoing structural violence."The Trevor Project began providing its services through the 988 Lifeline in 2022. In 2024, it served more than 231,000 crisis contacts, the organisation said in a statement. It says it will continue to provide its own independent services. US Supreme Court allows Trump to enforce transgender military banIn the US, DEI is under attack. But under a different name, it might live on The decision to eliminate the 988 Lifeline's designated LGBT youth option comes amid Trump's push to curtail services, support, and access for transgender people across the federal government. He has pushed to end diversity, equity, and inclusion policies (DEI) within the federal government, arguing that such programmes are themselves president has also ordered the removal of transgender servicemembers from the US military and issued an executive order that the US would only recognise two sexes – male and US Department of State also announced it would no longer allow applicants to choose "X" as their gender on US passports. Instead, transgender individuals must choose "male" or "female" corresponding to their sex assigned at birth. If you are suffering distress or despair and need support, you could speak to a health professional, or an organisation that offers support. Details of help available in many countries can be found at Befrienders Worldwide. the UK a list of organisations that can help is available at
