Viewpoints: Congress Can Stop Public Health Crisis By Quickly Renewing Ban On Fentanyl; Without Planned Parenthood, Watch Number Of Unplanned Pregnancies Among The Poor Soar

Opinion writers weigh in on these health care topics and others.

The Washington Post: Congress Should Act To Allow A Ban On Fentanyl Indefinitely

Fentanyl is a powerful opioid analgesic with great medical benefits for those suffering from cancer pain — and great potential for improper and illicit use. That potential had fortunately gone mostly unrealized in the United States before 2013, at which point drug users discovered fentanyl as an alternative to heroin and other prescription opioids, and the number of deaths from synthetic opioid (primarily fentanyl) overdose skyrocketed, according to government data, reaching 28,466 by 2017 — or nearly half of all opioid-related deaths that year. (1/5)

Nashville Tennessean: Women Shouldn't Have To Fight For Reproductive Health Services

The Title X gag rule is indeed fulfilling the president’s war on abortion, unfortunately it poses serious battles relating to family planning coverage amongst our teenagers and women of low income. Access to affordable contraception is proven to benefit society in a variety of ways including a decrease in unintended pregnancies, abortions, preterm births, and maternal mortality rate. (Megan Honaker, 1/3)

The Washington Post: I Spent Half My Life On Antidepressants. Today, I’m Off The Medication And Feel All Right.

The prescriptions began in the wake of my father’s sudden death when I was 15: Wellbutrin XL and Effexor XR for anxiety and depression, two separate doses of Synthroid to right a low-functioning thyroid, a morning and nighttime dose of tetracycline for acne, birth control to regulate the unpleasant side effects of womanhood, and four doses of Sucralfate to be taken at each meal and before bedtime — all given to me by the time I was old enough to vote. (Brooke Siem, 1/5)

The New York Times: Why Are Young Americans Killing Themselves?

Teenagers and young adults in the United States are being ravaged by a mental health crisis — and we are doing nothing about it. As of 2017, statistics show that an alarming number of them are suffering from depression and dying by suicide. In fact, suicide is now the second leading cause of death among young people, surpassed only by accidents. After declining for nearly two decades, the suicide rate among Americans ages 10 to 24 jumped 56 percent between 2007 and 2017, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (Richard A. Friedman, 1/6)

The Washington Post: Facebook Is Starting To Fight Misinformation, But Inconsistently

The 2020 Census has begun, and even with a count-skewing citizenship question off the table, obtaining an accurate count will be a challenge. The risk factors range from tricky technology updates to cybersecurity snafus to misinformation campaigns. For the last of those threats, at least, Facebook is trying to give the country one less thing to worry about.Facebook recently announced it will bar misrepresentations about the decennial survey from its site, whether they appear in everyday posts from ordinary users or in paid advertisements from politicians usually exempt from fact-checking. The policy is stricter than the platform is usually willing to be with falsehoods, and, paired with action on medical misinformation, it may be a sign that companies are increasingly grappling with how what happens in their online worlds affects what happens in what we used to call the real world. (1/4)

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