Health Care

Via Plan B One-Step

Colorado county board renews decision to ban Plan B at health clinics

Debate characterized by anti-abortion anxiety and aversion to subsidized contraception
| 05.09.13 | 1:01 pm | View Article

This story was originally published by The Colorado Independent. More…
Colorado’s Weld County Board on Monday renewed a 2010 policy that prevented county health clinics funded by the federal Title X women’s health program from dispensing Plan B emergency contraception to their mostly young and low-income patients.

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The crime of being positive

| 04.01.13 | 7:54 am | View Article

More…In the late fall of 1988, state lawmakers and representatives from major insurance and pharmaceutical companies were hard at work addressing the looming AIDS crisis for the American Legislative Exchange Council, a conservative-leaning think tank that produces state-based business-friendly model legislation.

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Mich.’s AIDS planning group trades transparency for protection of members’ HIV status

| 03.28.13 | 3:38 pm | View Article

LANSING, MICH.—The Michigan Department of Community Health has launched an investigation into whether its HIV/AIDS advisory body violated the state’s Open Meetings Act by requiring attendees to sign a confidentiality agreement. More…

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Maryland lawmaker cranks HIV-decriminalization gears with message bill

| 03.26.13 | 4:28 pm | View Article

*This article has been updated to reflect a correction.
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A Maryland lawmaker and a handful of local advocates have started the course to repeal the state’s HIV-specific criminal law, and if other states’ efforts are any indication, Maryland’s path will likely be a long and winding one.

Photo: Michigan state capitol building. Brian Charles Watson, via Wikimedia Commons. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Michigan_state_capitol.jpg

Mich. HIV data collection violates intent of statute, says lawmaker who helped create law

| 03.19.13 | 1:20 pm | View Article

LANSING, MICH. – Michigan’s health department is violating the legislative intent of an HIV-related statute – and maybe the law itself – by indefinitely collecting information on people who test for HIV at federally funded clinics, says a former state lawmaker, who helped pass sweeping health reforms in the wake More…

Mich. health dept. denies media access to training on controversial HIV database* UPDATE

| 03.05.13 | 10:04 am | View Article

This article has been updated, below the original story, to reflect that The American Independent has been authorized to attend Wednesday’s meeting. More…
LANSING, Mich. – Dozens of agencies and local health departments will be attending a mandatory meeting Wednesday in Lansing to review grant-fulfillment requirements related to HIV funding, but

Cropped image of a Michigan Department of Community Health brochure on HIV testing. Read the full brochure here.

Not-so-confidential HIV testing

The Michigan health department has been secretly collecting information on people who test for HIV at federally funded clinics. For a decade.
| 03.04.13 | 9:02 am | View Article

Since 2003, the Michigan Department of Community Health has been secretly collecting the names, dates of birth, risk categories, and other demographic information of people submitting for confidential HIV testing at grant-funded locations throughout the state and storing them in a massive database, a months-long investigation by The American Independent More…

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Sequester could lead to massive cuts in HIV testing, treatment

| 02.25.13 | 11:22 am | View Article

The AIDS Drug Assistance Program is among the many federal programs that will take a hit if $85 billion in across-the-board spending cuts go through March 1, and those cuts could potentially lead to an increase in HIV transmission, the White House said Sunday in a report More… on the anticipated