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For Immediate Release
June, 29 2020, 12:00am EDT
Contact:
Cindy del Rosario-Tapan, cdelrosario-tapan@iwhc.org, +1 917.715.1514
WASHINGTON
The International Women's Health Coalition (IWHC) is extremely disappointed by today's US Supreme Court ruling in the Agency for International Development v. Alliance for Open Society International case, a decision that upholds the application of the Anti-Prostitution Loyalty Oath (APLO).
Passed in 2003 as part of the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), this dangerous and counterproductive oath requires that organizations that receive US funding through this program have a policy "explicitly opposing prostitution." The Supreme Court previously ruled in 2013 that the law is unconstitutional when applied to US organizations. Today's 5-3 ruling did not overturn that 2013 decision but ruled that the free speech rights of US-based organizations are not violated when their foreign affiliates are required to adhere to the policy.
"The Supreme Court has doubled down on a flawed policy that harms sex workers and makes it harder for them to get the information, services, and support they need to prevent HIV,"said Shannon Kowalksi, IWHC's Director of Advocacy and Policy. "Justice Kavanagh and the majority of justices who joined him, have taken a direction that flies in the face of evidence and will further punish and stigmatize those who work in the sex industry."
The APLO is a problematic policy because it has resulted in cuts to funding for community-based and community-led organizations that are best placed to serve sex workers. It has undermined effective HIV responses by stigmatizing and marginalizing sex workers, whose involvement in designing and implementing HIV programs is essential for their success. And, the policy has also contributed to the proliferation of harmful strategies that are counter to both evidence and human rights: the criminalization of the sex industry is the primary driver of HIV risk and violence against sex workers.
With the Supreme Court's failure to undo this harmful policy, the responsibility now falls back to Congress to repeal the APLO provision. US global health policy should be rooted in human rights, evidence, and best practices: none of which are served by the APLO. IWHC calls on Congress to act to repeal this provision, and to ensure that PEPFAR and other US global health programs uphold the human rights of sex workers.
LATEST NEWS
New Biden Rule Would Rein in Medicare Advantage. Will Dr. Oz Let It Stand?
"There's every reason to expect the Trump administration to block these proposed rules from moving forward," warned Public Citizen co-president Robert Weissman.
Nov 27, 2024
The Biden administration on Tuesday unveiled a new rule aimed at reining in privatized Medicare Advantage plans, which have drawn growing federal scrutiny for denying coverage claims en masse—sometimes using artificial intelligence—and overbilling the government to the tune of tens of billions of dollars per year.
But the proposal could soon be fed through the buzzsaw of the incoming Trump administration, which is likely to have an outspoken Medicare Advantage supporter, Mehmet Oz, at the helm of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).
Biden's CMS said in a fact sheet released Tuesday that the new rule would ensure MA companies make enrollees aware of their right to appeal coverage denials. CMS pointed to data showing that MA plans, which now cover more than half of the Medicare-eligible population, "overturn 80% of their decisions to deny claims when those claims are appealed."
"These data also show that a low percentage of denied claims are appealed, meaning many more could potentially be overturned by the plan if they were appealed," CMS added.
The rule would also look to constrain MA plans' deceptive marketing practices and "use of inappropriate prior authorization." Prior authorization is a byzantine process under which providers must demonstrate that a proposed treatment is medically necessary before the insurer will cover it.
"The big question, of course, is what will the Trump administration do with these rules? Will they side with patients needing treatment or care-denying big insurers?"
Robert Weissman, co-president of the consumer advocacy group Public Citizen, welcomed the new rule as a "common-sense" measure that would "limit" some of the damage inflicted by MA plans, which are notorious for denying patients necessary care.
"The big question, of course, is what will the Trump administration do with these rules? Will they side with patients needing treatment or care-denying big insurers?" Weissman continued. "Unfortunately, despite its populist pretensions, there's every reason to expect the Trump administration to block these proposed rules from moving forward. Dr. Mehmet Oz, Trump's nominee to run the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, is a major proponent of expanding privatized Medicare, with nary a worry about privatized Medicare's rampant abuses and rip-offs of taxpayers."
Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), chair of the Senate Finance Committee, vowed Tuesday that he will "be watchdogging the incoming Trump administration to ensure there is no backsliding on these critical consumer protections and coverage improvements."
Oz, a long-time television personality known for hawking unproven treatments, has been characterized as a "shill" for MA, a program funded by taxpayers and run by for-profit insurance companies.
As recently as August, Oz boosted Medicare Advantage on his YouTube account, as New York magazine reported earlier this week:
In August, Dr. Mehmet Oz's official YouTube account posted a video titled "Get $0/Month Medicare Coverage: What You Need to Know," in which Oz lays a sales pitch on his viewers. "Which of these items can you get for zero dollars?" he says, pointing to images of a coffee cup, a pack of gum, and a newspaper, as if quizzing a toddler on the pictures in a children’s book. "Or how about a health insurance plan?" he says. If you've ever watched daytime television, you know how the next part goes: Oz reveals he was, indeed, talking about the health insurance plan, and the studio audience erupts into applause. He then brings out an insurance agent to paint a rosy portrait of Medicare Advantage before ending with a call to action, encouraging any seniors in the audience to call in to a special phone number or visit a website to learn more and enroll.
During his 2022 bid for a U.S. Senate seat, Oz campaigned on a proposal he called "Medicare Advantage for All"—while owning stock in UnitedHealth Group, the nation's largest MA insurer.
Oz's support for Medicare Advantage aligns with the Project 2025 agenda, which calls for making MA the default enrollment option for U.S. seniors—an existential threat to traditional Medicare. Such a sweeping change would hugely benefit UnitedHealth and other private insurance giants.
"Project 2025's plans for Medicare, seconded by Dr. Oz, will end Medicare as we know it, and leave seniors to the tender mercies of dishonest and debased private insurance plans," The American Prospect's Robert Kuttner warned Tuesday. "What's insidious is that none of these changes require legislation. The best we can hope for is that the sunlight of exposure of these schemes will act as a disinfectant."
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Israel Agrees to Cease-Fire With Lebanon's Hezbollah—But What About Gaza?
"It has long been clear that a cease-fire in Gaza is crucial to sustain any lasting cessation of hostilities across the region," said one group.
Nov 26, 2024
Peace advocates on Tuesday cautiously celebrated Israel agreeing to a cease-fire with the Lebanese political and paramilitary group Hezbollah while also stressing the need for an immediate end to the Israeli assault on the Gaza Strip.
Despite concerns about whether the truce will actually happen, the Friends Committee on National Legislation (FCNL), a U.S.-based Quaker group, welcomed the plans for it and called on "all parties to ensure this agreement is swiftly enacted."
"The time for peace is now—not just in Lebanon, but in Gaza and across the region," FCNL declared on social media. "We urge U.S. officials to ensure this agreement brings an immediate end to the Israeli government's devastating and indiscriminate bombing and attacks against Lebanese civilians, which have been fueled by U.S. weapons."
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office announced that the National Security Cabinet approved the cease-fire in Lebanon with a 10-1 vote—only far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir voted no. The office added that "Israel appreciates the U.S. contribution to the process, and reserves the right to act against any threat to its security."
Netanyahu said in a speech to Israelis that "the length of the cease-fire depends on what happens in Lebanon. With the United States' full understanding, we maintain full freedom of military action. If Hezbollah violates the agreement and tries to arm itself, we will attack. If it tries to rebuild terrorist infrastructure near the border, we will attack. If it launches a rocket, if it digs a tunnel, if it brings in a truck carrying rockets, we will attack."
Speaking from the White House Rose Garden, outgoing U.S. President Joe Biden said that he worked with French President Emmanuel Macron to negotiate the cease-fire, which is set to begin at 4:00 am local time on Wednesday. The United States has spent at least tens of billions on Israeli military operations and related U.S. operations in the region since the Gaza-based Palestinian group Hamas led the October 7, 2023 attack on southern Israel.
"As Biden spoke tonight, Israel was raining U.S. bombs down on Lebanon and Gaza," notedDrop Site journalist Jeremy Scahill.
Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati on Tuesday thanked France and the United States for negotiating the truce, which he said is "a fundamental step towards establishing calm and stability in Lebanon" and "helps to establish regional stability." He also reiterated his government's intention to "strengthen the army's presence in the south."
Cross-border battles between Israeli forces and Hezbollah over the past nearly 14 months have displaced tens of thousands of people in Israel and over 1 million in Lebanon. The Lebanese Ministry of Public Health said Tuesday that Israel's assault—which has intensified since September—has killed at least 3,823 people and injured another 15,859.
In Gaza, the death toll is at least 44,249, with 104,746 wounded, according to local officials. Israeli forces have also decimated civilian infrastructure and displaced most of the enclave's 2.3 million residents, who are struggling to access necessities, due to limits on aid. Israel faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court last week issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu, former Israel Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, and a Hamas leader.
"It has long been clear that a cease-fire in Gaza is crucial to sustain any lasting cessation of hostilities across the region," said FCNL. "More violence and suffering in Gaza will not make Israel, the U.S., or anyone safer or more secure. It must end now. We reiterate our calls for our government to use all U.S. leverage to bring about a full regional cease-fire to end the horrific suffering of Palestinians, protect all civilians, return all hostages home, de-escalate regional tensions, and begin the long road toward healing."
"That must include prohibiting more offensive weapons shipments and U.S. military involvement, which would send a message of impunity to the Israeli [government] in the face of repeated and grave violations of U.S. and international law in Gaza, Lebanon, the West Bank, and beyond," the group added—just days after a bipartisan majority of the U.S. Senate rejected a trio of resolutions from Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) that would have halted some arms sales to Israel.
Nancy Okail, president and CEO of the U.S.-based Center for International Policy, responded similarly to the Tuesday development, saying in a statement that "we welcome news of a cease-fire agreement in Lebanon and hope that it can be implemented and sustained to prevent further harm to civilians who have been under threat of attack or suffered other great loss during the fighting."
"This agreement nonetheless comes too late. While Israel has the right to legitimate self-defense against Hezbollah, the Netanyahu government's deliberate escalation of the conflict in September resulted in disproportionate harm to civilians, hundreds of whom have been wounded or killed, with hundreds of thousands more displaced," Okail said. "Mixed messages and prevaricating by the Biden administration on its position on Israel's escalation and the need for a cease-fire [have] further prolonged the fighting and exacerbated the death and destruction it has brought."
"The U.S. and its partners must ensure that the terms of this agreement are fully honored so that civilians on both sides of the border can safely return to and rebuild their communities," she added. "What remains of the utmost urgency, however, is also ending the war in Gaza, where the U.S. arming of the Netanyahu government's campaign of displacement, starvation, slaughter and—per the repeated vows of senior Israeli officials—settlement continues in violation of American and international law."
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Democrats Call On Biden to Limit Marijuana Prosecutions Before End of Term
"Rescheduling marijuana and the prior round of pardons must not be the end of this administration's historic work," wrote the lawmakers.
Nov 26, 2024
Democratic lawmakers on Monday urged U.S. President Joe Biden to ensure that his administration's "historic work... to undo the damage of federal marijuana policy" would not end with the steps already taken over the past three years, calling on the president to "deprioritize" marijuana prosecutions before his term ends in January.
Led by Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), 14 members of the Democratic caucus applauded Biden for issuing a directive earlier this year that led health regulators to recommend marijuana be classified as a Schedule III substance under the Controlled Substances Act. For decades it has been classified as a Schedule I drug, considered to have no medical use and high potential for abuse.
The lawmakers urged the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) "to complete that process as soon as possible," but stressed that doing so would "not end federal criminalization, resolve its harms, or meaningfully address the gap between federal and state cannabis policy. Possession and use of recreational marijuana—and much state-legal medical marijuana—will continue to be a violation of federal law."
What would help to end criminalization at the federal level, said the lawmakers, is "a memorandum that would deprioritize seizing marijuana and prosecuting individuals and businesses for state-legal marijuana activity."
The DEA persists in carrying out major raids and seizures of marijuana plants and businesses, wrote the lawmakers—including Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Reps. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) and Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.). They pointed to raids carried out this year in New Mexico in which state police destroyed tens of thousands of pounds of "state-legal" marijuana plants.
"The Biden administration has the opportunity to further reduce the harms of marijuana's criminalization before the end of this administration."
"We urge you to issue a memorandum that would deprioritize seizing marijuana and prosecuting individuals and businesses for state-legal marijuana activity," reads the letter. "Today, federal sentences for marijuana possession are rare, with only 13 individuals sentenced for simple marijuana possession in 2023, compared to over 2,000 in 2015. Still, the threat of a federal conviction persists."
A memorandum from the Biden administration should also direct federal law enforcement to "deprioritize prosecutions of any future marijuana offenses that have been the basis of prior federal pardons, and deprioritize prosecutions of personal cannabis activities and cannabis activities that comply with state or tribal law," the lawmakers wrote.
Biden has been applauded for issuing pardons and commutations for people convicted of marijuana-related offenses, but the lawmakers noted that at least 3,000 people remain in federal prisons for such convictions.
"The Biden administration has the opportunity to further reduce the harms of marijuana's criminalization before the end of this administration by issuing another round of clemency and an updated memorandum on prosecutorial discretion for marijuana offenses," said the lawmakers.
President-elect Donald Trump's nominations for top government positions indicate potential mixed stances on marijuana policy in the incoming administration. His attorney general nominee, former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi, opposed an amendment to legalize medical marijuana in the state, and Food and Drug Administration commissioner nominee Marty Makary has called marijuana a "gateway drug."
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., whom Trump has nominated to lead the Health and Human Services Department, has expressed support for medical marijuana legalization.
The lawmakers on Monday urged Biden not to leave major decision-making on cannabis policy up to Trump.
"Rescheduling marijuana and the prior round of pardons must not be the end of this administration's historic work to use its executive authority to undo the damage of federal marijuana policy," they wrote. "As we continue to work toward legislation to end the federal criminalization of marijuana and to regulate it responsibly and equitably, we urge prompt administrative action to tackle the harms of criminalization—particularly for the benefit of communities most harmed by the War on Drugs."
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