The Weekly Pulse: Roe v. Wade at Risk; U.S. Hits New Vaccine Milestone

The Weekly Pulse: Roe v. Wade at Risk; U.S. Hits Vaccine Milestone, While Low-Income Countries Struggle to Meet Demands

For The Weekly Pulse, we scour the most trusted journalistic sources—and, of course, our Twitter feeds—to bring you this week’s most important news stories related to health and wellness.

In this edition: Texas passes a new anti-abortion law with a chilling twist; abortion rights advocates prepare for the worst as the Supreme Court takes on Mississippi abortion case; the U.S. reaches new milestone as low-income countries struggle to meet vaccine demands; and Chiquita Brooks-LaSure becomes the first Black woman to lead the Center for Medicaid and Medicare Services.

federal pandemic unemployment programs

Half of U.S. States are Leaving Women Workers Behind

After a year that has put parents—especially women—through unimaginable strain as they’ve struggled to keep a roof over their families’ heads and care for their children, governors in 24 states now want to rip out the rug from under them by ending state participation in federal pandemic unemployment programs.

Emergency unemployment aid is doing what it is meant to do: serving as a temporary lifeline while workers search for and return to work.

Black Feminist in Public: On the Centennial of the Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921, Anneliese Bruner Treasures Her Great-Grandmother’s Words

Black Feminist in Public: On the Centennial of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre, Anneliese Bruner Treasures Her Great-Grandmother’s Words

Just ahead of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre Centennial, an eyewitness account of the tragedy by Tulsa resident, Mary E. Jones Parrish (1892-1972), has been reissued: “The Nation Must Awake: My Witness to the Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921.”

“Yes, it is painful, but human history is ugly. … There is some level of responsibility that creative people have to be as truthful and as accurate as possible to the histories they tell,” says Parrish’s great-granddaughter, writer and editor Anneliese M. Bruner.

Why Order Abortion Pills Online? Affordability, Privacy and Convenience, Says New Study

Why Order Abortion Pills Online? Affordability, Privacy and Convenience, Says New Study

As red states increasingly pass abortion bans and the Supreme Court is now reviewing a direct challenge to Roe v. Wade, Aid Access and other online providers of abortion pills are likely to play an increasingly important role in helping people access abortion.

“As legislators make in-clinic abortion harder and harder to get, people are having to look for viable alternatives.”

front and center sabrina

Front and Center: “Unemployment Helped Me Sustain,” Says Sabrina, a Mother of the Magnolia Mother’s Trust

Front and Center aims to put front and center the voices of Black women who are affected most by the often-abstract policies currently debated at the national level. The series highlights the success of Springboard to Opportunities’ Magnolia Mother’s Trust program, which this year will give $1,000 per month for 12 months to 100 families headed by Black women living in federally subsidized housing.

“The governor just announced that Mississippi is going to cut us off from extra unemployment benefits so I’ll be losing that $300 a week. It will be tough. I’m a good saver, but it is not going to be easy.”

America Might Finally Get a Comprehensive Care System

America Might Finally Get a Comprehensive Care System

The Biden–Harris administration’s American Jobs Plan and American Families Plan taken together would lay the foundation for building comprehensive child care and early learning, creating greater access to home- and community-based services with a well paid workforce, and paid family and medical leave for everyone that would bolster women’s workforce participation, support healthy child development and learning, ensure people with disabilities can live independently, support aging with dignity, and ensure a flourishing economic future for everyone.

“Cancel Culture”? North Dakota Lawmakers Try to Block Abortion Rights Supporters from University Campuses

“Cancel Culture”? North Dakota Lawmakers Try to Block Abortion Rights Supporters from University Campuses

North Dakota State University nursing professor Molly Secor-Turner has partnered with Planned Parenthood on a sex education program for high-risk youth since 2012. Last month, North Dakota lawmakers targeted this kind of collaboration when they passed a bill that would have put faculty members in jail for working with abortion providers and supporters, fine them, and impose multi-million-dollar penalties on their universities.

Katherine Clark Introduces Reproductive Rights Are Human Rights Act

Katherine Clark Introduces Reproductive Rights Are Human Rights Act: “We Owe It to the Global Community”

“State Department reporting on violations of reproductive rights should not be subject to whiplash between the policies of the occupants of the White House. Congress has an important role to ensure that the U.S. is consistently and unbiasedly reporting on the rights violations that impact women around the world, without political interference.”

Katherine Clark’s Reproductive Rights Are Human Rights Act would require the State Department include reporting on contraception and abortion access, STD rates and prevention efforts, maternal health, and rates and causes of pregnancy-related injuries and death, including unsafe abortions.