election corner
How Trump uses the language of eugenics
BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP via Getty Images
Have you ever noticed that when former President Donald Trump speaks about immigrants, he often brings up genetics? Last year, he said that immigrants are "poisoning the blood of our country." Earlier this month, he said that because of undocumented immigrants, the U.S. had "a lot of bad genes in our country."
Experts told STAT that this language is indicative of a larger trend. The eugenics movement — the pseudoscientific idea of fixing social problems through genetics and heredity that led to policies like forced sterilization — is once again taking center stage in the U.S. It's not just in immigration policies and rhetoric promoted by Trump; even academic literature has seen a rise in race science. Read more from STAT's Anil Oza.
LgBTQ+ health
New survey of intersex queer young people shows major mental health struggles
We already know there's a mental health crisis among adolescents — and that LGBTQ+ teens are facing additional struggles, often in the face of restrictive state legislation. But there isn't a lot of information out there on intersex youth — those born with sex traits or reproductive anatomy that differ from the binary male/female body. But a new report from the Trevor Project found that the burden is particularly heavy for queer intersex young people: In a survey, 55% reported seriously considered suicide in the past year. A quarter reported attempting suicide.
The survey included more than 18,600 queer people ages 13 to 24, 256 of whom identified as intersex. (Intersex people make up a similarly small percentage of the general population — 1.7% is the most popular estimate. Not all intersex people identify as queer, but everyone in this survey did.) Among those, 17% said they had received surgery to alter their sexual anatomy, most often before the age of one. These adolescents had even higher rates of attempting suicide in the past year (34%) than intersex queer peers who hadn't received surgery (18%).
Advocates have long pushed for hospitals to stop performing surgeries on non-consenting intersex people. The Trevor Project calls in the report for more research that better identifies intersex people, in order to protect them from conversion attempts and non-consensual surgery.
more election
How a Trump presidency would change health care
Last week, STAT's Rachel Cohrs Zhang reported on what would happen to American health care if Vice President Kamala Harris were to win the election next week. Today, STAT's Sarah Owermohle brings you the Trump version of that story.
Former president Trump hasn't provided many details on what he plans for health care, but that hasn't stopped the conjecture. Democrats have campaigned heavily against the Project 2025 agenda put out by a conservative think-tank, despite Trump insisting he does not endorse the blueprint. In her latest story, Sarah lays out what we know about Trump's health policy stances and his potential top priorities in a second administration. Potential focuses include revisiting the ACA, reforming public health agencies, and slashing drug prices. Read more.
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