Kim Floren has spent the last several weeks trying to comfort people panicking about the end of Roe v. Wade. “Everybody has been on the spectrum from just being in tears to total panic about what they’re going to do,” said Floren, who runs South Dakota’s Justice Through Empowerment Network, one of more than 100…
People who are pregnant in rural areas generally have a harder time reaching a doctor. Dr. Anne Banfield saw this firsthand when she worked as an OB-GYN in rural West Virginia. “We have a lot of mothers in our country who are suffering, because potentially in many cases, there are breakdowns in the prenatal care…
Billions of dollars a year flow to U.S. hospitals through the federal prescription drug discount program known as 340B. A Supreme Court case this summer briefly thrust the little known but highly controversial program into the spotlight. In 2018, the federal government cut payments to hospitals in the program, and a group of hospitals and…
PEORIA — OSF HealthCare’s insurance policy bars its LGBTQ employees from fertility treatment coverage. That’s according to a new report by Bloomberg Law. Reporter Shira Stein told WCBU that while most health plans use the CDC’s definition of infertility, OSF’s stated policy covers fertility treatments only for married, opposite-sex couples. Stein said while neither federal…
SPRINGFIELD — While COVID may not be top of mind for people anymore, the pandemic isn’t over. And for some who have had COVID, neither is their illness. Many patients with long COVID experience symptoms for weeks or months after their initial infection has passed. https://cpa.ds.npr.org/s4780019/audio/2022/07/20220719-secovid2wayweb-edit.mp3 Listen to this story here. Nationwide, 1 in 5…
SPRINGFIELD – Gov. JB Pritzker has tested positive for COVID-19 and is isolating at home, his office announced Tuesday, three days after he spoke at a gathering of Democrats in Tampa, Florida. Pritzker’s press office said he is experiencing mild symptoms and has received the anti-viral medication Paxlovid, a drug that received Emergency Use Authorization…
URBANA — Cars whoosh past the KEDPLASMA center on Lincoln Avenue. Brandon Olison has spent hours in the building, donating his plasma in exchange for a card pre-loaded with cash. Olison hasn’t had any side effects in the two months since he started donating. “I’ve never had a side effect or anything. No bad experiences….
If you or someone you know may be considering suicide, contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255 (En Español: 1-888-628-9454; Deaf and Hard of Hearing: 1-800-799-4889) or the Crisis Text Line by texting HOME to 741741. Beginning July 16, the Lifeline can be reached by dialing 988. CHICAGO — After a bad breakup, 19-year-old…
SPRINGFIELD – The Illinois State Police announced Monday they will start using a broader definition of what constitutes a “clear and present danger” when reviewing a person’s Firearm Owners Identification card. That’s a factor ISP considers when deciding whether to grant someone a FOID card or to revoke or suspend a card that has already…
If you need to talk, or if you or someone you know is experiencing suicidal thoughts, text the Crisis Text Line at 741-741 or call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255. America’s new national mental health crisis line—988—goes live on July 16. The three-digit hotline is supposed to make it easier for people struggling with addiction, suicide, and…
SPRINGFIELD – I’Kera Hill, 3, died of malnutrition and dehydration at a Carbondale hospital on June 22, 2022, according to the child endangerment charges filed in Jackson County against her parents, Isaac Hill and Katrina Simelton Hill. Her obituary stated that I’Kera died after a bout with COVID-19, and she was known as “Peanut.” The…
SPRINGFIELD – Planned Parenthood affiliates in Illinois and Wisconsin said Thursday they have formed a partnership to expand services at an abortion clinic in Waukegan to help serve residents of Wisconsin, where abortion services are now banned. That announcement came three weeks after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the 1973 decision in Roe v. Wade,…
SPRINGFIELD – Illinois will soon have a new Department of Public Health director and its first electric vehicles coordinator after Gov. JB Pritzker announced those appointments in recent days. Dr. Sameer Vohra, a Springfield pediatrician, will still need approval from the state Senate to become the permanent replacement for former Director Dr. Ngozi Ezike, who…
On Tuesday, the first probable case of monkeypox was reported in Champaign County, according to the Champaign-Urbana Public Health District (CUPHD). The World Health Organization describes monkeypox as a potentially serious viral illness, fatal in 3 to 6 percent of cases. CUPHD administrator Julie Pryde said that monkeypox is spread in numerous ways, though her department…
Years before starting a landmark research project on abortion access, Diana Greene Foster saw firsthand the impact that banning abortion can have, through her grandmother Dorothy. Dorothy became pregnant at 19. It was not planned, and Foster thinks if her grandmother had access to a legal abortion, she would’ve gotten one. But in 1940, that…