Latest news with #Memphis-based
Business Wire
16 hours ago
- Health
- Business Wire
Ivy Fertility Launches New Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility Fellowship at Fertility Associates of Memphis with the University of Tennessee Health Sciences Center
SAN DIEGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Ivy Fertility, a nationally recognized network of fertility clinics, is proud to support a new Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility fellowship program initiated by Fertility Associates of Memphis within the Graduate Medical Education program at the University of Tennessee Health Sciences Center. The fellowship aims to expand access to physician training in a region historically underserved by fertility specialists. The fellowship aims to expand access to physician training in a region historically underserved by fertility specialists. With fewer than 75 infertility physicians graduating from fellowship programs nationwide each year, the need for more training opportunities is urgent. Ivy Fertility is meeting this challenge by investing in a premier educational program that will provide aspiring REI physicians with world-class mentorship and clinical experience. This fellowship is one of only 50 teaching centers in the US accredited by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education, and is the only program of its kind in the region, which includes Tennessee, Mississippi, and Arkansas. The program's inaugural fellow is Dr. Sierra Bishop, a highly accomplished OB/GYN with deep roots in the Memphis medical community. Dr. Bishop earned her medical degree and completed her residency at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center, where she served as Chief Resident. Her research interests include fertility preservation for young cancer patients, recurrent pregnancy loss, and reproductive infections, topics on which she has published and presented nationally. 'Dr. Bishop is an exceptional physician, and we are thrilled to welcome her as our first fellow,' said Dr. William Kutteh, Fellowship Director and founding physician at Fertility Associates of Memphis. 'Our goal is to train thoughtful, skilled, and compassionate leaders in reproductive medicine, and I am confident that Dr. Bishop will set a high bar for the future of this program.' The Memphis-based program will draw on the deep expertise of FAM's faculty, who are nationally and internationally recognized leaders in the field. FAM's Dr. Kutteh, Dr. Raymond Ke, Dr. Paul Brezina, Dr. Amelia Bailey, and Dr. Jianchi Ding all have teaching appointments at the University of Tennessee, and they will all be part of the training program faculty. Collectively, they have published more than 300 academic papers and regularly hold leadership roles in national professional organizations. 'Tennessee is a critically important location for this kind of program,' added Dr. Kutteh. 'We are addressing a significant gap in reproductive healthcare training across the Southeast.' For Ivy Fertility, the fellowship is part of a broader commitment to expanding access to fertility care across the United States. 'At Ivy, we know that supporting the future of reproductive medicine means investing in the next generation of clinicians,' said Lisa Van Dolah, CEO of Ivy Fertility. 'We have made this top-tier physician program a priority. This fellowship reflects our long-term vision for growing both the fertility workforce and the reach of compassionate, personalized care.' About Ivy Fertility Ivy Fertility is globally recognized as pioneers and innovators in the field of advanced reproductive technologies, in-vitro fertilization, third-party reproduction, andrology, and fertility research. The Ivy Fertility network includes Dallas IVF, Fertility Associates of Memphis, Fertility Centers of Orange County, IVF Fertility Center, Los Angeles Reproductive Center, Nevada Center for Reproductive Medicine, Nevada Fertility Center, Northern California Fertility Medical Center, NOVA IVF, Pacific Northwest Fertility, Reproductive Partners Medical Group, San Diego Fertility Center, Utah Fertility Center, and Virginia Fertility & IVF. By developing new procedures, achieving scientific breakthroughs, and teaching the latest techniques, Ivy Fertility upholds its commitment to successful outcomes and continually contributes to the development of the entire fertility community. The Ivy team is passionate about its family-building mission and works tirelessly each day to help patients become parents.
Time Magazine
3 days ago
- Health
- Time Magazine
Supreme Court Upholds Gender-Affirming-Care Ban. Here's What to Know
The Supreme Court has delivered a major blow to transgender rights with its decision to uphold a Tennessee law that bars doctors from providing gender-affirming care including puberty blockers, hormones, and surgical procedures for trans minors in the state. The Wednesday decision in the landmark U.S. v. Skrmetti case is expected to upend access to healthcare for trans and nonbinary youth far beyond Tennessee. While the ruling does not ban gender-affirming care nationwide, it permits the at least 25 bans that states have passed against medical and surgical care for transgender youth. Some states, such as Florida, have similarly moved to restrict access to such care for adults. The opinion comes as the Trump Administration targets transgender Americans on the federal level as well, seeking to bar requests for updated gender markers on federal identification documents that align with the holder's gender identity and releasing a U.S. Department of Health and Human Services report aiming to discredit gender-affirming care as treatment for individuals with gender dysphoria. The effort to bar accurate gender markers was blocked by a federal judge on Tuesday. The Supreme Court's decision will pose a significant obstacle for legal challenges to the mounting restrictions being placed on gender-affirming care across the country. In the ruling, the conservative majority rejected arguments that barring such care violated the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment. 'This case carries with it the weight of fierce scientific and policy debates about the safety, efficacy, and propriety of medical treatments in an evolving field,' Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for the majority in the court's 6-3 ruling. 'The Equal Protection Clause does not resolve these disagreements.' Here's what to know about the decision and how it will impact care. What does the Supreme Court's decision mean for gender-affirming care? The lawsuit at the core of the U.S. v. Skrmetti, filed by the families of three transgender adolescents and a Memphis-based medical provider, challenged the Tennessee ban on gender-affirming care for minors under the equal protection clause, citing sex discrimination. The state of Tennessee, meanwhile, argued that the ban would help protect children from what it referred to as 'experimental' medical treatment, though every major medical and mental health association supports gender-affirming care as a legitimate health practice, per GLAAD. The justices found that the law is a standard state regulation on medical care and does not discriminate on the basis of sex. 'The law does not prohibit certain medical treatments for minors of one sex while allowing those same treatments for minors of the opposite sex,' the majority opinion reads. Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Ketanji Brown Jackson and Elena Kagan dissented. 'Male (but not female) adolescents can receive medicines that help them look like boys, and female (but not male) adolescents can receive medicines that help them look like girls,' Sotomayor wrote in a dissent joined in full by Jackson and in part by Kagan. 'By retreating from meaningful judicial review exactly where it matters most, the Court abandons transgender children and their families to political whims. In sadness, I dissent.' The state of Tennessee is home to about 3,000 transgender youth, according to UCLA School of Law's Williams Institute. Nationwide, there are an estimated 300,000 transgender adolescents. The Supreme Court's ruling will also allow gender-affirming-care bans in states beyond Tennessee to go into effect, though it does not enact a nationwide ban. That means transgender minors living in a state with a ban will have to seek care in other states in order to continue receiving medication or other gender-affirming treatments. It is still unclear how the ruling could affect potential gender-affirming-care bans for adults, according to Alex Reinert, a constitutional law and civil rights professor at Cardozo School of Law. 'The court doesn't address that,' he says. 'But I think the reasoning that the court has provided would apply to attempts to regulate gender-affirming care for adults as well.' Many activists are lamenting the decision due to its potential effect on transgender youth. 'The biggest human tragedy here are the trans kids whose lives are going to be irrevocably changed as a result of not being able to get the best practice healthcare that their parents want them to get, [and] that their doctors want them to get,' says Cathryn Oakley, senior director of legal policy at the Human Rights Campaign, a nonprofit advocating for LGBTQ+ rights. A 2022 study published in the National Library of Medicine found that gender-affirming care was associated with lower odds of depression and suicidality. A 2024 peer-reviewed study in Nature Human Behaviour in collaboration with Trevor Project researchers found that anti-transgender state laws caused an uptick in suicide attempts among transgender youth by as much as 72%. 'Today's ruling is a devastating loss for transgender people, our families, and everyone who cares about the Constitution,' said Chase Strangio, co-director of the ACLU's LGBTQ & HIV Project who argued the case before the court, becoming the first out trans attorney to do so. 'We are as determined as ever to fight for the dignity and equality of every transgender person and we will continue to do so with defiant strength, a restless resolve, and a lasting commitment to our families, our communities, and the freedom we all deserve.' What legal challenges could come next Legal experts say the decision will make it difficult to battle other gender-affirming-care bans, though not impossible. 'The question presented to the Supreme Court was pretty narrow. It was very specifically this question of whether or not discrimination against trans people constitutes discrimination on the basis of sex,' says Oakley. Cases that pertain to protected classes, such as sex and gender, are typically reviewed under the lens of heightened scrutiny. The level of scrutiny matters because it dictates the type of rationale the government must have for passing a law, says Reinert. The majority ruled on Skrmetti with a rational review, meaning that they believed the Tennessee law did not deal with those issues but instead with matters of age and 'the medical purpose for which the treatment is being sought,' Reinert says. 'The plaintiffs argue that SB1 warrants heightened scrutiny because it relies on sex-based classifications. But neither of the above classifications turns on sex,' the majority opinion reads. 'Rather, SB1 prohibits healthcare providers from administering puberty blockers or hormones to minors for certain medical uses, regardless of a minor's sex. While SB1's prohibitions reference sex, the Court has never suggested that mere reference to sex is sufficient to trigger heightened scrutiny.' In cases regarding the rational basis reviews of the law, 'the state almost always wins,' Reinert says. Oakley says it's possible future plaintiffs could contest state laws based on parental rights over their child's medical treatment. Reinert concurs that additional legal challenges can be brought in the court system depending on the way other state laws are phrased or organized. But, he adds, the decision 'almost certainly makes those challenges much harder to succeed at.' What medical groups say about gender-affirming care Gender-affirming care is espoused as a medically accepted treatment by every major medical association in the U.S., including the American Academy of Pediatrics, American Medical Association, and more. The American College of Pediatricians, which has been identified as an anti-LGBTQ+ hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, filed an amicus brief in support of the state of Tennessee. The group was first founded in 2002 by members who opposed the American Academy of Pediatrics's endorsement of adoption by same-sex couples. Beyond the U.S., several European countries are assessing best practices for patients with gender dysphoria. The U.K. moved to ban puberty blocker prescriptions for youth in March 2024, citing a lack of evidence. Some doctors who treat patients with gender dysphoria have expressed disappointment with the court's ruling. 'Today's decision codifies the patchwork of state laws banning vs. allowing medically necessary healthcare for a singular group of young people into federal law,' Morissa Ladinsky, a professor at Stanford University School of Medicine and Child Health told TIME in an emailed statement. 'This emboldens a more sinister reality. Providers can now discriminate in the delivery of health care. We can treat patients differently on the basis of age, sex and gender. Because we can, does not mean we must.'
DW
3 days ago
- Health
- DW
US Supreme Court backs Tennessee youth transgender care ban – DW – 06/18/2025
In a setback for transgender rights in the United States, the conservative-dominated court voted to uphold a ban on hormone therapy, puberty blockers and gender transition surgery for minors. The United States Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld a Tennessee law banning gender-affirming medical care for transgender minors. The court, which is dominated by conservative justices, voted 6-3 in favor of the Republican-backed ban on hormone therapy, puberty blockers and gender transition surgery for patients under the age of 18, ruling that it does not violate the US Constitution's 14th Amendment. What did the judges say? "Tennessee concluded that there is an ongoing debate among medical experts regarding the risks and benefits associated with administering puberty blockers and hormones to treat gender dysphoria, gender identity disorder and gender incongruence," wrote conservative Chief Justice John Roberts. "[The Tennessee] ban on such treatments responds directly to that uncertainty." The Supreme Court ruling comes after several plaintiffs, including three transgender minors, their parents and a Memphis-based doctor who provides such care, took legal action against the Tennessee law, which they argued discriminates based on sex and transgender status, thus violating the 14th Amendment. But Liberal Justice Sonia Sotomayor said the court largely deferred to the state legislature's policy choices in upholding the ban without conducting a "meaningful judicial review." Dissenting "in sadness," she said the court had "abandon[ed] transgender children and their families to political whims." Chase Strangio, an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union, representing the plaintiffs, said that the Tennessee law has "taken away the only treatment that relieved years of suffering" for those concerned. The first openly transgender lawyer to argue before the court, Strangio added: "What they've done is impose a blunderbuss ban, overriding the very careful judgment of parents who love and care for their children and the doctors who have recommended the treatment." Trump declares US to only recognize two genders To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video A setback for transgender rights in the US The decision represents a setback for transgender rights, an issue at the heart of the culture debates that have become a dominant feature of American political life. While the Justice Department under Democratic former President Joe Biden had challenged the Tennessee law, his Republican successor Donald Trump has taken a hardline stance against transgender rights. "Across the country today, medical professionals are maiming and sterilizing a growing number of impressionable children," read a January 28 executive order signed by Trump, who had said in his inauguration speech that his government would only recognize two genders: male and female. "This dangerous trend will be a stain on our nation's history, and it must end," it added. According to the Williams Institute at the UCLA School of Law, a think tank that researches sexual orientation and gender identity demographics to inform public policy decisions, there are about 300,000 people between the ages of 13 and 17 in the United States who identify as transgender, plus around 1.3 million adults. Trans people in the US fear massive setbacks under Trump To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video Edited by: Rana Taha
Yahoo
12-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Community home for veterans & suicide prevention breaks ground
MEMPHIS, Tenn. – Civic leaders and community advocates gathered Thursday to break ground a new project that aims to build 100 homes dedicated to providing housing and support for veterans, as well as those impacted by suicide. Latham Homes for Veterans is a joint partnership between Thomas L. Jones, a fifth-generation Memphian and recent graduate of the University of Southern California, Dream Builders LLC., a local development firm, and Trinity House, a Memphis-based nonprofit organization committed to mental health and community wellness. 'We are building more than houses, we are building hope, healing, and a future for our veterans and those struggling in silence,' said Thomas L. Jones, co-founder of the initiative. This project not only addresses urgent housing needs but also represents a long-term investment in Memphis communities most at risk. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Miami Herald
11-06-2025
- Business
- Miami Herald
Another distressed trucking company files Chapter 11 bankruptcy
The Great Freight Recession continues to force trucking companies to shut down operations and, in some cases, file for bankruptcy to restructure debt and reorganize businesses. Trucking companies have battled reduced shipping demand, lower freight rates, and rising costs of labor, fuel, and insurance, which have impacted revenues and profits over the last year. Don't miss the move: Subscribe to TheStreet's free daily newsletter Freight demand faced an unseasonal decline in April 2025, "likely presaging further deterioration in the coming months," according to an April 23 State of the Industry Report, produced by Ryder and FreightWaves. Related: Another major trucking company files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy The truckload market experienced a significant slowdown, and the intermodal sector is on a steep decline and will likely dip below 2024 levels by the end of April, the report said. The decline is unusual since the beginning of the second quarter regularly sees demand slowly ramp up in anticipation of summer inventories and produce deliveries, according to the report. Truckload volumes will likely fall further from this point forward, the report said, as import bookings have plummeted in recent weeks, which will first impact drayage markets and intermodal demand before showing up in truckload volume data. Lower freight demand may have made an impact before the April unseasonal decline as Madison, Ill.-based LTI Trucking, with about 250 drivers, 300 tractors, and 575 trailers, shut down its operations on April 2, but did not file for bankruptcy protection. The company, which did not state a reason for closing, was a major shipper of products for AB InBev, KraftHeinz, Vlasic, Hershey's, Nestle, Tyson, Hillshire Farm, Kroger, Hostess, and Sara Lee. Florida-based trucking company Davis Express Inc., which had 160 trucks and 140 drivers, shut down its business permanently in April after making its final deliveries on April 23 and returning all trucks to its terminal by April 30. All employees will be paid and receive benefits through their June 15 pay period, the company said. Davis Express also did not file for bankruptcy. Three more trucking companies filed for Chapter 11 protection on April 7, including Memphis-based trucking firm, Best Logistics Inc.; C&C Freight Network, which filed to restructure its debts, facing economic problems; and Dedham, Mass.-based Best Choice Trucking LLC, which filed for bankruptcy to restructure its debts, including a large amount of vehicle financing. More bankruptcy: Iconic auto repair chain franchise files Chapter 11 bankruptcyPopular beer brand closes down and files Chapter 7 bankruptcyPopular vodka and gin brand files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy Transportation and logistics company Balkan Express and its affiliate Balkan Logistics filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy to restructure their debts on April 30. Balkan Express operates 159 power units and has 166 drivers who ship general freight, including beverages. Financial distress continued into May, as logistics and trucking company KPower Global Logistics LLC filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on May 8 to reorganize its business almost four months after its affiliate Reliable Healthcare Logistics LLC filed for bankruptcy. Next, Mount Prospect, Ill., trucking and freight transportation company AZA Transportation Inc. filed its Subchapter V Chapter 11 petition on May 14, and another trucking and logistics company Elite Carriers and four affiliates filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on May 21 to restructure their debts. The company, which operates 70 trucks and employs 70 drivers, transports goods from the Midwest to the East Coast and Canada, according to its website. Also, Grand Prairie, Texas-based trucking and logistics company NAS Logistics LLC filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on May 27 in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Texas to reorganize its business and restructure its debts. Finally, major general freight transportation and logistics company Nortia Logistics Inc. filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in June to reorganize its business and restructure its debts. Related: Major logistics and trucking company files Chapter 11 bankruptcy The trucking company reportedly owes debts to several creditors, including multiple financial institutions and transportation-related companies. The Franklin Park, Ill.-based company filed its petition on June 9 in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Illinois, listing $1 million to $10 million in assets and liabilities, including $3.83 million owed to Union Pacific Railroad, over $825,000 owed to Ryder Transportation, and over $515,000 owed to Prologics/KTR Illinois. The debtor did not state a specific reason for filing for bankruptcy protection. Nortia Logistics provides full truckload trucking, less-than-truckload shipping, intermodal shipping, warehouse consolidation and distribution, real-time tracking, and 24/7 customer support. The trucking company currently employs 45 drivers and 56 power units, according to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration's SAFER website. Nortia operates in the U.S. and Canada, with specialized operations on the West Coast and Canada. It operates 230 trailer units, nine warehouses, and consolidation centers. Related: Major trucking company files Chapter 11 bankruptcy to restructure The Arena Media Brands, LLC THESTREET is a registered trademark of TheStreet, Inc.
