Health

July 25, 2022 0

How Massachusetts is Responding to the National Crisis in the Aftermath of the Dobbs Supreme Court Decision

In the first few days after the decision of Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the landmark Supreme Court case that overturned Roe v. Wade and eliminated the constitutional right to abortion, thousands of Bostonians protested the ruling. They gathered in front of the State House and in Copley Square, marching and chanting across downtown Boston. They held signs displaying messages such as “guns have more rights than women in the U.S.A,” “bans off our bodies,” and “abortions save lives.” […]

July 25, 2022 0

Childhood Obesity Fueled By Consequences of the Pandemic

by Jeff Millman

Politics, to paraphrase the philosopher John Gray, is nothing more than a series of imperfect remedies for recurring problems. No policy results in unmixed blessings; every decision we make has both good and bad consequences. So it is with the mandates and restrictions that have ruled our social life for the past two years. Lockdowns, school closures, and mask-wearing reduced the transmission of COVID-19 and prevented some serious illnesses and deaths. But two years on, we are vastly more knowledgeable […]

July 14, 2022 0

Banning Juul e-cigarettes: Government Intervenes to Protect Youth

by Moninisha Yadav

“This really doesn’t make sense to me,” says Jenny (name changed by request), a rising senior at a Boston exam high school. “There are so many cannabis shops now all over the place. I’m too young for that, but I don’t want it. I don’t want pot or tobacco like my friends. Juul is convenient, affordable, and a better alternative to what my friends are doing. Why is it now being banned?” Jenny, who asked her name to be withheld […]

July 10, 2022 0

Sampan Analysis: What Abortion Ruling Means, What’s Ahead

by Chelsea Wang

The U.S. Supreme Court on June 24 upheld a Mississippi law banning abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, eliminating the constitutional right to abortion. This ruling comes 49 years after Roe v. Wade, the landmark case that struck down a Texas law banning all abortions except those necessary to save the mother’s life. The Court had ruled in 1973 that criminal statutes that outlaw abortions at all stages of pregnancy violate the Due […]

June 26, 2022 0

Baby Formula Crisis Hits Minority, Immigrant Women

by Sonia Cavazos

Since the shutdown of the Sturgis Michigan Abbot Laboratories plant in February 2022, mothers have been scrambling to find baby formula. That story is widely known. But what is less discussed is how acute the loss of formula has been felt by minority and immigrant women who depend so much on baby formula to go back to work. “My client, Mrs. Wong, began to worry (early on) when the cashier at Stop & Shop told her that she could only […]

June 17, 2022 0

Baby Formula Shortage and Minorities

by Sampan Staff

“It’s so sad. It shouldn’t be like this. We need formula for our kid, and where is this formula going to come from?” This is a lingering question from mother of two, Capri Isidoro, struggling to breast feed her one-month-old daughter. After giving birth, the hospital gave her baby formula without consulting her on any wish to breastfeed first, a common occurrence among minority moms. The baby formula shortage puts Hispanic and Black women at risk the most. The CDC […]

June 17, 2022 0

As Court Decision Looms, Remembering Boston’s Abortion Rights Legacy

by Jeff Millman

The relationship between medicine and law is complex and contentious. Rulings that have a finality in the public imagination are often put to the test in the real world, their consequences and exceptions worked out in a fashion far from ideal. The closing words of Supreme Court opinions – It is so ordered – suggest a solidity these rulings rarely have. Roe vs. Wade is no different. Just months after the Court released its opinion on the case, it was […]

May 6, 2022 0

Failure to Fund Successful Health Services Program Leaves 30,000 Vulnerable Residents, Communities of Color Without Vital Care

by Sampan Staff

On March 29, 2022, ABCD—Action for Boston Community Development—received the shocking news that the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, Office of Population Affairs, was terminating funding of the anti-poverty organization’s Title X Family Planning program as of March 31, 2022. For more than 50 years, in collaboration with a vital community health center network, ABCD has done an exemplary job of delivering critical health services to more than 30,000 low-income residents and communities of color. Where are our […]

April 27, 2022 0

Covid-19: Severe Impact on Lower-Income Households

by Max Wei

In Carolyn Wong and Ziting Kuang’s report Asian Americans and the Covid-19 Pandemic, a Multi-Lingual Survey in Greater Boston in 2020-21, the impact of the pandemic on English-limited and low-income Asian families are mainly reflected in financial losses, unemployment, and food and housing difficulties. In their survey, the population is focused on Chinese American, Vietnamese American, and South Asian ethnicities living in the neighborhoods of Chinatown, Dorchester, Malden, and Quincy. The survey also pays attention to the percentage of low-income […]

April 27, 2022 0

One Family’s Struggle to Get Mental Health Care Highlights a Problem Many Asian Americans Still Face

by Jeff Millman

When James started taking a more active role in his mother’s health care needs around six years ago, he came to appreciate something he had not understood before. “I didn’t realize without [a family member’s] help that my mom is actually a survivor,” he said. Born in China, James’ mother emigrated to the United States as a young woman and has lived in the Boston area for over 40 years. She has also dealt with mental health issues since she […]

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