Author: Nan Feyler

Public Health Consequences of Islamophobia

Donald Trump has built his presidential campaign on demonizing immigrant and religious minorities without regard for the damage he instills. At Tuesday night’s Republican presidential debate it was more of the same. In the wake of Trump’s anti-Muslim rhetoric, there have been a record number of threats, harassment and vandalism to mosques, as well as attacks on individuals perceived to be Muslim. Muslim-Americans report feeling fearful, and anxious for themselves and their families. It is a difficult time for law-abiding Muslims in America. Two decades of public health scholarship confirms that this type of hatred directed at one group of people, along with the harassment, discrimination and segregation that follow, has a pernicious impact on health. Hatred stigmatizes and marginalizes its targets, limits access to life’s opportunities and reduces the freedom to freely partake in life’s enjoyments. It can incite threats and violence and internalized self-hatred. The constant stress of being targeted risks cardiovascular disease, hypertension, anxiety and depression.  As the nation aspires to achieve health equity, the impact of Trump’s disparaging divisive rhetoric will …

Jail Cell

A Vaccine Against the Epidemic of Mass Imprisonment

A powerful group of United States senators unveiled a bill last month designed to reform federal criminal sentencing laws. If passed, the Sentencing Reform and Corrections Act of 2015 will begin to address some of the most troubling areas of federal criminal sentencing – the cause, many experts say, of exponential growth in the federal prison population. The bill would reduce mandatory life sentences without parole for some drug offenses, allow parole for people sentenced to life for crimes they committed when juveniles and expand the number of inmates over 60 years old who can seek compassionate release from prison. It provides judges with greater discretion at sentencing for some drug crimes and allows for retroactive application of the 2010 federal law that reduced the unfair disparity in sentence lengths between crack and powder cocaine. The bill is particularly noteworthy for its bipartisan support, which includes Sen. Charles Grassley. The Judiciary Committee chairman has been a staunch supporter of harsh punishments, including mandatory minimum sentences, reflecting a hopeful trend that the uniquely American experience of …

Love Park

LOVE Park Family Personifies Problems

The story about a Philadelphia couple who told their two young children they were camping out in LOVE Park because they had no other place to spend the night shocked many people (“Help for a homeless family in LOVE Park“). But given Philadelphia’s high rate of poverty and lack of affordable housing, this family’s experience is not unique. The Philadelphia Office of Supportive Housing runs the city’s shelters, which are too often filled, and Community Legal Services has seen clients seeking family shelter wait weeks and even months for space to become available. Most tragically, parents who end up on the street or couch-surfing with their children risk having their children taken from them and placed in foster care. Absent signs of parental abuse or neglect, children should be allowed to stay with their parents, and the family should be offered emergency shelter. Children need not also suffer the trauma of being separated from their parents. We hope the city will focus on eliminating the waiting list for shelter beds for homeless families and significantly …

Birth Control

Birth control and the Affordable Care Act (and, yes, the pope)

With much of the East Coast enthralled by the visit of Pope Francis, let’s review an issue that pits – perhaps – the pontiff’s enduring commitment to the disenfranchised against his religious beliefs: More than 50 years ago, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in the landmark case Griswold v Connecticut that women have a constitutional right to birth control. Even with the right granted by the court, many women have had a hard time accessing contraception. Lack of health insurance, limits to coverage, and hefty co-pays have been obstacles keeping women from fully enjoying this right. Things have gotten better, however, since enactment of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), which requires free preventive health-care services for women. The law mandates that health insurers offer an employee and her dependents the full range of FDA-approved contraceptives – including the more costly injectables and IUDs – without any cost-sharing such as a co-pay. Access to reproductive healthcare is critical in allowing women to lead full lives. A comprehensive review of more than 60 research studies by the …