health disparities

April 7, 2022 - To address the region's shockingly high rate of pregnancy-related deaths, a growing number of Southern states are expanding their Medicaid programs or launching Medicaid pilot initiatives to cover the services of doulas — nonclinical professionals who provide holistic support during all stages of pregnancy.   

February 25, 2022 - Inspired by her own experience with postpartum depression, Louisiana nurse practitioner and doula Nikki Greenaway launched an innovative practice to care for vulnerable new mothers. She talks with Facing South about how her model of community care can help address the maternal mortality crisis, which is especially dire among young Black women living in Louisiana and other Southern states. 

January 28, 2022 - Rural hospitals were able to survive 2021 with special pandemic assistance, but some aid is set to expire by the end of this year. Advocates say state Medicaid expansion could help rural hospitals confront the worsening staffing crisis and provide much-needed care in their communities.

January 24, 2022 - Drug overdose deaths are climbing nationally and across the South, driven in large part by street drugs contaminated with fentanyl, a powerful synthetic opioid. Many of these deaths could be prevented by allowing drug users to test their supply for fentanyl's presence, but some states still ban testing strips as paraphernalia.

July 1, 2021 - Over 2 million adults — including over half a million essential workers — fall into the Medicaid coverage gap in states that have refused to expand the program under the Affordable Care Act, and most are people of color living in the South. Congressional Democrats from Georgia and Texas recently unveiled plans to work around GOP-controlled legislatures' refusal to authorize broader Medicaid coverage even when facing a deadly pandemic.

February 26, 2021 - New initiatives underway in Southern states aim to reduce the region's alarming maternal mortality rates in the Black community.

June 1, 2020 - Several chronic health conditions that disproportionately affect residents of Southern states are now considered potential risk factors for severe illness from COVID-19. As the country moves toward reopening, public health experts fear the pandemic could wreak havoc on vulnerable communities across the South.