Reading Time: 7 minutes Humans can be pretty nifty. When something goes wrong, when there’s a crisis in need of immediate redress, many of us are right there on the frontlines, trying to help. And sometimes knowing how to help is easy! Show up here. Sign the petition there. Contact your government representatives (always). But in many situations, the […]
Healthcare
Posted inReproductive rights
Christian generosity after Roe?
Reading Time: 4 minutes Will Christians step into the gap to pick up the pieces after the rejection of Roe protections? A tweet insists that Christians have already been doing so. I’m skeptical.
Posted inHealthcare
The problem with removing travel mask mandates
Reading Time: 2 minutes I am profoundly disappointed in the sudden decision to one month ago remove mask mandates from public-facing travel arenas such as airplanes. I know some people like to pretend that it’s over, but it’s not. Infection rates and hospitalization rates are both rising, according to the CDC’s tracker. Anecdotally, I know people getting COVID who […]
Posted inReproductive rights
As other states prepare bans, Colorado etches freedom of choice into state law
Reading Time: 5 minutes In September of last year, my worst nightmare came true: Texas passed a severe ban on abortions and instituted a bounty on anyone attempting to aid or receive abortion health care. It was something right out of a dystopian novel. This had already been a reality for millions of people of color—now it had simply […]
Posted inReproductive rights
How to discuss the overturning of Roe v. Wade with our kids
Reading Time: 4 minutes We’ve heard about the SCOTUS decision. Changes to abortion laws are coming. Now it’s time to discuss it with our kids. Here’s how.
Posted inHealthcare
Is Spain’s new menstrual leave policy a good idea?
Reading Time: 3 minutes Chances are good that you know someone who suffers from intense menstrual distress: cramping, headaches, nausea, and diarrhea, just to name a few. You might even be that person. I’ve been lucky in that, despite having a uterus, it rarely acts up too badly. But I see it all around me: in family members, in […]
Posted inHealthcare
Slowing to listen at the end of life
Reading Time: 12 minutes Marcia sat up on the side of the bed, a hand on each knee, and braced herself as she leaned forward to open the space in her chest for more air. At 52, she was dying of ovarian cancer that had spread to her liver. The critical organ had failed, causing excess fluid to gather […]
Posted inHealthcare
Alternative medicine in the dressing room: Does self-employment drive some to quackery?
Reading Time: 3 minutes As the daughter of a self-made businessman and a full-time musician, I felt almost destined to be self-employed. Although when I was writing an elementary school “What do you want to be when you grow up” essay assignment, I didn’t write about wanting to be a stripper. I’m pretty sure it was more along the […]
Posted inHealthcare
White supremacy is killing us in many ways, including COVID
Reading Time: 2 minutes If you’ve been paying any attention, you know that white supremacy and related hate groups pose a large problem in the U.S. The Southern Poverty Law Center finds in their 2021 report on extremism that extremism has become embedded in mainstream U.S. politics. And USA Today notes an all-time high in white supremacist propaganda in […]
Posted inHealth
The ethical problem with denying diabetics no-prick glucose monitors
Reading Time: 5 minutes In the past few years, science has produced a few truly wonderful devices capable of monitoring diabetics’ blood-sugar levels 24/7 in real-time, with the power to help the afflicted self-manage very protective eating strategies. Unfortunately, even though I’m diabetic, I simply can’t afford all but one of these devices even if my doctor were willing […]