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January 2022: Issue 1
This newsletter was developed (in part) with federal funds from the Office of Population Affairs. For more information on the rules and regulations that apply to our programs, please visit
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Wyoming Health Council contributes to health and well-being for all, where we grow, live, learn, work and play. |
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Thanks For Waiting! We've Been Working Hard
_____Title X Funding 2022-2025 _____
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With robust plans for how the Wyoming Health Council and our Title X subrecipients can further reproductive and sexual health care in our communities, the WHC team has been working hard the past few months brainstorming, creating, writing and editing, oh my! Applications, state and health data, graphs, charts, and more, have with great attention to detail, been written into a request for funding for the next five years and sent off to the United States government this new year!
The WHC anticipates that the next few years will bring expansion of the Title X network, resulting in better awareness and access for clients seeking family planning, education and reproductive and sexual health care in Wyoming!
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For many, 2021 was just a continued blur of 2020. Different variants of COVID, pandemic fatigue, questions of how to support our own mental health and those of our children and teens... the world trudged forward, one foot in front of the other. However, the struggles made us put our thinking caps on and search for solutions which helped our hopes for a better future to continued to grow.
Take a look back with us at what happened in 2021!
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Title X Final Rule
On October 4, 2021, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of Population Affairs (OPA) amended the Title X Family Planning regulations to restore access to equitable, affordable, client-centered, quality family planning services for more Americans!
Ensuring such access for all clients, especially for low-income clients, in the Title X program creates opportunities for realigning the nation's family planning program with nationally recognized standards of care and improving the health of communities that have been historically underserved. The 2021 regulations also reinforced the program’s central tenets of quality, equity, and dignity for all individuals who seek Title X services and modernized the more than 50-year-old program to better reflect the current healthcare system.
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Dr. Rachel Levine
First Openly Transgender Federal Official and The
Nations First Trans Four-Star Officer
On March 24, 2021, Dr. Rachel Levine became the first openly transgendered, Senate-confirmed federal official in U.S. history!
While Dr. Levine undoubtedly focused on the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, she also focused on reproductive health, helping undo the Trump era regulation and more!
Then on October 19, 2021, Dr. Levine was sworn in as the Nations first Trans Four-Star Officer, " sworn in as an admiral — the highest-ranking official of the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps. Levine's appointment to the USPHS Commissioned Corps also made her the organization's first female four-star admiral...She describes her appointment as part of the Biden administration's commitment to diversity, inclusion and equity:
"I think this is symbolic of that commitment and for transgender youth and other transgender individuals that there are no glass ceilings and no limitation to what we can achieve," Levine said."
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Maternal Health Day of Action December 7
With the creation of the Maternal Health Day of Action, this past year, Vice President Harris issued a nationwide Call to Action to both the public and private sectors to help improve health outcomes for parents and infants in the United States.
"To put it simply, here's how I feel about this: In the United States of America in the 21st century, being pregnant and giving birth should not carry such great risk," she said. "But the truth is women in our nation — and this is a hard truth — women in our nation are dying. Before, during, and after childbirth, women in our nation are dying at a higher rate than any other developed nation in our world.
This is about the rights of women. This is about the future of our nation. And this will take all of us," Harris said Tuesday. "On this Day of Action, may the women of our nation know: I hear you. We hear you."
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Texas, SB 8 and How Title X Can Help
"The day after Senate Bill 8 went into effect (SB 8 effectively banned abortion after six weeks and outsourced enforcement of the law to private citizens, who can sue anyone they suspect has been involved in aiding or abetting abortions past that point) in Texas, President Joe Biden announced a “whole-of-government effort” to address the new law severely limiting abortion access, specifically calling on the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Justice to take action.
The Department of Health and Human Services is now poised to distribute $10 million to help invest in contraception access in the state.
The choice to increase funding for Title X — the federal government’s family planning grant — is significant. It aims to provide increased emergency contraception, one of the key reproductive health services left in the state, and potentially aid in key family planning infrastructure that the state has chipped away at for years.
The funding is being dispersed in two allotments. The first is to Every Body Texas. The second will allow any family planning provider, whether they are a current Title X grantee or not, to apply for funding to be used for family planning and contraception services to aid those directly impacted by SB 8.
“The thought process we’re working through is if we increase access [to family planning] in response to SB 8 and focus on emergency contraception, we can help prevent unintended pregnancy before people reach the point of needing an abortion, since that’s now so limited in the state,” Matt Thompson, the interim Title X director of Every Body Texas.
Thompson also said that Every Body Texas is focused on utilizing this increased funding to expand the Title X network in the state, which he said has “big gaps where these services are needed.”
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See what we Google in 2021. |
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___________In Memoriam__________ |
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Sarah Weddington
_____February 26, 1945-December 26, 2021_____
Sarah Weddington was 26 years old when she successfully argued the landmark abortion rights case Roe v. Wade before the U.S. Supreme Court. She went on to serve in the Texas House of Representatives and later as general counsel for the US Department of Agriculture and an assistant to President Jimmy Carter. She was also a professor at University of Texas at Austin for 28 years, where she taught courses on leadership and gender-based discrimination.
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Sidney Poitier
_____February 20,1927-Jany 6, 20202_____
In 1964, Sidney Poitier was the first African American and first Bahamian to win the Academy Award for Best Actor. Poitier was instrumental for the diversity of Hollywood and "paved the way for Black actors in film". The Hollywood Reporter wrote that "Poitier was the first actor to star in mainstream Hollywood movies that depicted a Black man in a non-stereotypical fashion, and his influence, especially during the 1950s and '60s as role model and image-maker, was immeasurable."
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Betty White
______January 17,1922- December 31, 2021_____
As some liked to say, Betty White was older than sliced bread and made it almost to her 100th birthday this year. A beloved comedic actress, and pioneer of early television, with a career spanning over eight decades, White was noted for her vast work in the entertainment industry and being one of the first women to work both in front of and behind the camera.
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WYOMING HEALTH COUNCIL
111 S. Durbin, Suite 200
Casper, WY 82601
Call Us: (307) 439-2033
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