Welcome to Tuesday, September 1st, Istanbuls and Constantinoples and Byzantines...

House Democrats are signaling they'll push to repeal the Hyde Amendment, which restricts federal dollars from funding abortions in most cases.

The Dems would accomplish this by excluding the provision from annual spending bills starting next year.

Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT), who chairs the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Health and Human Services (HHS), offered the following statement after her subcommittee included Hyde Amendment provisions in this year’s funding bill:

“Although this year’s bill includes it, let me be clear, we will fight to remove the Hyde Amendment to ensure that women of color and all women have access to the reproductive health they deserve.”

Introduced by Rep. Henry Hyde (R-IL) in 1976 - three years after the Supreme Court’s landmark decisions on abortion rights in Roe v. Wade and in Doe v. Bolton - the Hyde Amendment prohibits the use of federal Medicaid funding to provide abortions except in cases when the abortion is sought to protect the life of the mother.

Do you support eliminating the Hyde Amendment to let federal Medicaid dollars pay for abortions?

On the Radar

988 as the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline

September marks the start of National Suicide Prevention Month, and this summer saw the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) finalize a plan to make 988 the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline starting on July 16, 2022.

President Donald Trump signed the National Suicide Hotline Improvement Act into law in August 2018, which directed the FCC to examine the feasibility of designating a three-digit dialing code — like 911 — for a national suicide-prevention and mental-health-crisis hotline.

In August 2019, the FCC released a report recommending the designation of 988 as the 3-digit code for the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline because it “would likely make it easier for Americans in crisis to access potentially life-saving resources;” in part because 988 hasn’t been designated as an area code. 

If you or someone you know is suffering from suicidal thoughts, know you’re not alone. Confidential help is available for free at 1-800-273-8255. Or chat online here.

Will "988" be a more-accessible suicide prevention lifeline?

Under the Radar

Racial and Ethnic Gaps in Health Insurance

One in nine Americans under the age of 65 didn't have health insurance in 2018. The numbers were higher among Hispanic, Native, and Black Americans.

Hispanic Americans under the age of 65 are nearly three times as likely to not have health insurance than the white, non-Hispanic population of the same age.

The share of people uninsured — both total and within demographic groups — had dropped after 2014, the year most of the Affordable Care Act went into effect. While the numbers have ticked upward since 2016, gaps remain across racial and ethnic groups.

Share of uninsured, under age 65

Check out more graphs here, then join the conversation:

Should Congress act on healthcare gaps?

And, in the End...

It's Emma M. Nutt Day.

Emma M. Nutt was the first female telephone operator in the world. She started working on this date in 1878, at the Edwin Holmes Telephone Dispatch Company in Boston.

In honor of Emma and Suicide Prevention Month, reach out to someone who'd appreciate an "I'm-thinking-of-you" today,

—Josh Herman

Talk to us via email at editorial [at] causes.com. And don’t forget to keep in touch @Causes.