A new report published by the Safeguarding Health in Conflict Coalition (SHCC) documents 1,989 attacks and threats against health care facilities and personnel across 32 countries and territories in armed conflict and situations of political violence throughout 2022. The reported figure represents the most severe year of attacks against health care in the last decade […]
Today marks a new chapter in the fight against COVID-19, as the Public Health Emergency (PHE) expires in the United States. Similarly, on May 5, 2023, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced the end of the Public Health Emergency of International Concern, downgrading COVID-19 from an emergency to an “ongoing health issue” with a need […]
Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) welcomes today’s end of Title 42, a Trump-era policy that weaponized the pandemic to expel people seeking asylum from the United States. While Title 42 was framed as a way to safeguard Americans from COVID-19, PHR demonstrated for years that there was never a credible public health rationale behind a […]
Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) welcomes the American College of Emergency Physicians’ (ACEP) new public statement that “ACEP does not recognize the use of the term ‘excited delirium’ and its use in clinical settings.” PHR also welcomes ACEP President Christopher Kang’s, MD, FACEP statement in a recent emergency medicine podcast interview that “continued reference” to […]
Eight Sudanese and international health and human rights organizations condemn the continued attacks on hospitals and health care in Sudan amid the escalating conflict in the country. The organizations – including the Sudanese American Physicians Association (SAPA), Sudan Doctors Union – Canada (SDU Canada), Sudan Doctors Union – UK (SDU-UK), Sudanese Doctors Union of Ireland […]
Not a single hospital in Oklahoma appears able to articulate clear, consistent policies for emergency obstetric care to pregnant patients, according to a new study published Tuesday. When called by prospective patients, Oklahoma hospitals offered opaque, contradictory, and incorrect information about abortion availability and approval processes in obstetric emergencies, as well as little reassurance that […]
Executive Summary In the wake of the 2022 U.S. Supreme Court decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, Oklahoma residents are currently living under three overlapping and inconsistent state abortion bans that, if violated, impose severe civil and criminal penalties on health care providers. Exceptions to these new laws, enacted around the Supreme Court’s […]
Following the United States (US) Supreme Court decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization in June 2022, people in the US who can become pregnant are facing an unprecedented human rights crisis. In Dobbs, the Supreme Court overturned the constitutionally protected right to access abortion, leaving the question of whether and how to regulate […]
The United Nations Human Rights Council’s 52nd session in Geneva concluded this week with some meaningful advances for health and human rights. In addition to the adoption of the landmark resolution on the human right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment (A/HRC/51/L.7), the Human Rights Council (HRC) also renewed the mandates for several important […]
Today, a Texas judge’s decision declared unlawful the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) approval of mifepristone, an essential medication used in medication abortions. Mifepristone, when used in combination with misoprostol to assist abortion, has been recognized by the World Health Organization as a core medication on the Model Essential Medicines List where legal and […]
