Former President Donald Trump has been pressured to push for a national ban on abortion. He declined to do so Monday, frustrating abortion opponents.
Robin Erb
Robin Erb covers a range of health issues in Michigan, including the industry of aging and the issues facing older residents in Michigan, a state that is aging faster than most others. She joined Bridge in 2019 and has led investigations that tracked millions of dollars in opioid settlement money and explored severe worker shortages in health care that threaten lives and the state's economy. She chronicled the shock and grief of Michigan families in COVID’s wake, as well as state policy decisions and the triumphs of medical breakthroughs. Robin previously spent six years covering health at the Detroit Free Press, documenting the battle over, and the eventual passage of, the Affordable Care Act and Michigan's Medicaid expansion. She studied communications and political science at Miami University and has a master’s degree in organizational leadership from Lourdes University (Toledo, Ohio). She and her husband raised two wonderful children — but have failed miserably at training their Beagle-Bassets — in southeast Michigan. Reach her at rerb@bridgemi.com.
Posted inMichigan Health Watch
In traveling RV, Michigan nurse tries to undo opioid damage she helped cause
Michigan nurse Jordana Latozas began her career writing prescriptions for pain pills in “a different world.” Fourteen years later, she said, she’s trying to right the wrong that those pills caused.
Posted inBusiness Watch
U-M Health preps major metro Detroit expansion with Kmart site buy
The $4.2 million deal gives U-M a prominent location for its deeper expansion into metro Detroit as the health system plots statewide growth.
Posted inMichigan Health Watch
ACLU calls for ending Michigan parental-consent law for underage abortions
A new report by the American Civil Liberties Union and others used court data and interviews with sexual-health advocates, attorneys and providers to examine Michigan’s 1991 law requiring parental consent for abortions
Posted inMichigan Health Watch
Fighting Michigan's opioid crisis with new needles, purer drugs, respect for addicts
Harm reduction is more than needle exchanges. At Grand Rapids-based Red Project, users can ask to have their drugs checked for additives, allowing the user to decide whether to discard or use them.
Posted inMichigan Health Watch
Supreme Court abortion pill case ‘terrifying’ for Michigan women, Nessel says
Michigan voters in 2022 guaranteed abortion access in the state constitution, but a case in front of the U.S. Supreme Court could sharply restrict who gets the abortion pill. Attorney General Dan Nessel calls that a “terrifying” prospect.
Posted inMichigan Health Watch
Report: Michigan needs coordination, collaboration in spending opioid funds
Michigan governments sharing in a $1.5 billion opioid crisis settlement must invest in housing, peer recovery staff and harm reduction programs like syringe exchanges, according to a new report.
Posted inMichigan Health Watch
Report: 3 in 10 deaths of new moms in Michigan linked to substance use
The drug crisis and maternal mortality crisis have converged, notes a new report. Maternal mortality rates overall are increasing.
Posted inMichigan Health Watch
Diet drugs are bigger than ever, and in Michigan, Medicaid picks up the tab
Michigan’s Medicaid picked up the $393 million cost last year for 67,000 patients on Wegovy and other drugs. Not all insurance covers the pills that can cost $1,000 or more a month, prompting equity issues.
Posted inMichigan Health Watch
Michigan Democrats push to expand birth control access, boost supplies
One day after the first over-the-counter pills began shipments, Michigan lawmakers weighed whether pharmacists could prescribe other types of birth control.