Editor’s note: This story contains references to sexual abuse, domestic violence and murders of children.

Update (12/14/23): The Pennsylvania Senate passed the bill dubbed Kayden’s Law by a vote of 50-0 on Dec. 13. The bill now moves to the state House for consideration.

Reported 12/7/23:

Claim abuse, lose custody: A bill aims to curb a trend born of the theory of ‘parental alienation’

When a child development professional first told Inaya that they would be filing a Childline report on behalf of her toddler, she felt both relieved and terrified. 

The Pittsburgh mother of one was fearful her then-husband would hurt her child once she disclosed the abuse, but her worry poured out to the child development professional. “One weekend I broke down before her because of what had been happening, and she then told me that, ‘You and your daughter are no longer safe here,’” said Inaya, whose real name is being withheld out of concern that publicity might result in negative consequences.

Inaya had been enduring what she described as increasingly threatening tirades and promises of violence: throwing items, breaking down doors and descriptions of physical harm that would come to her and her child if they did not comply. Once the Childline report was filed, Inaya knew the risk had surged, and she had to leave. 

“That’s when I called up the women’s shelter, and she said, ‘Just pack two sets of clothes for yourself and your daughter and come right here.’ OK, and so that’s what I did.” 

She believed that would be the start of a new — and safer — life for her and her toddler. 

Instead, five years later, Inaya’s ex-husband has primary custody and she is only permitted to see her child for two overnight visits per week, which she says amounts to about 13 to 15 waking hours. The case has included testimony brought by an expert witness called by her ex-husband who said that physical and sexual abuse might be less harmful to a child than “parental alienation.”

The decades-old theory of parental alienation, which holds that one parent may deliberately turn a child against the other, has polarized family courts across the country. Court decisions to disregard abuse allegations, driven in part by the theory, have been linked to child deaths.

Since the death of a Philadelphia-area child in 2018, advocates and lawmakers have pushed for more protections for the children of parents fleeing abusive situations. But while measures inspired by that death have made their way into law in some states and can even unlock federal funding, they haven’t yet made it through Pennsylvania’s General Assembly.

Parental alienation: Worse than a punch?

Psychiatrist Richard Gardner coined the phrase “parental alienation syndrome” in 1985, characterizing it as a disorder in which children, programmed by the allegedly “loved” parent, grow resentful of the allegedly “hated” parent, and often of that parent’s extended family. 

In 2013, the American Psychological Association [APA] listed parental alienation as a specific form of child abuse. Parental alienation syndrome is not listed as a medical term in either the International Classification of Diseases or the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.

Nonetheless, it turns up in custody cases, including Inaya’s in a 2021 custody trial.

Her lawyer sought to exclude the testimony of Robert Evans, a psychologist and co-author of the book “The Essentials of Parent Alienation Syndrome,” but a county Court of Common Pleas judge denied that motion. According to the trial transcript, Inaya’s lawyer then cross-examined Evans, presenting hypothetical scenarios of abuse.

“Can a parent inflict more damage by parental alienation than the parent could inflict by, say, breaking the child’s bones?” the lawyer asked.

“Conceivably, yes,” Evans answered.

“… How about, you have a 4-year-old child, and the parent punches the child in the face and leaves two black eyes,” the lawyer continued. “Could in your opinion parental alienation be worse for the child than that?”

“Potentially, yes,” said Evans.

“OK, how about if you have a 4-year-old, and the father forces the child to perform fellatio on him. Could that be less harmful to the child than parental alienation?”

“Potentially, yes,” Evans answered.

“How about the father actually fully penetrates his four year old daughter’s vagina with his penis. Could that be less harmful to the child than parental alienation?” the lawyer asked.

Said Evans: “Potentially.”

Evans did not respond to requests for comment for this story.

In late 2021 the judge gave Inaya’s former husband custody of the child, with periods of supervised custody for the mother.

A theory that usually works against moms

“Historically we have seen fathers get custody of their children during custody cases because women and children were seen as their property,” said Danielle Pollack, policy manager for the National Family Violence Law Center at George Washington University Law School. Over the last several decades, Pollack said, “we have seen more of a 50/50 standard.”

Parental alienation claims, though, have pushed the pendulum back, according to research conducted by the center.

“Parental alienation is an effective legal strategy even though there is no evidence to support it,” said Joan Meier, a professor of Clinical Law and Director of the center. “It fits the court’s mind that no abuse could ever happen and both parents should just get along.”

Meier’s 2019 study found that in cases in which mothers claim abuse by a father, and the father then claims alienation, courts are more than twice as likely to disbelieve the mother’s claim. When a mother claims child abuse, and the father claims alienation, courts are almost four times more likely to dismiss the claim than if the father did not claim alienation. 

“Women’s voices are taken as less credible and children even less credible,” Pollack said. “So when you have to talk about the abuse, the courts have the human response to deny it. We all don’t want it to be true that these things have happened, especially child sexual abuse. Your brain just turns off.”

Meier also found that when fathers claim alienation, the rate at which mothers lose custody shoots up from 26% to 50% for any abuse allegation. Even when courts believe a father has abused a mother, if they also believe the mother is alienating, some mothers still lose custody to the abusive fathers. 

Across all cases in which alienation was claimed — regardless of whether abuse was claimed — when a father alleged a mother was alienating the man took full custody from her 44% of the time. When the genders were reversed, mothers took custody from fathers only 29% of the time. 

“It’s a mix of ignorance, stereotypes, denial of abuse and misogyny,” Meier said. “There has not been any useful training [in courts] on the use of parental alienation and its gendered outcomes.”

Judges “see an abuser come into court calm, cool, collected, a pillar of the community,” said Kathleen Russell, executive director of California-based Center for Judicial Excellence. 

The mother, by contrast may appear stressed and could be suffering from PTSD, impacting their courtroom delivery, Russell added. As a result, judges “don’t believe the women because they don’t present well, and they believe the abusers because they are poised and don’t act abusive.” 

When parental alienation is alleged, she said, efforts to disprove it can instead appear to support the underlying claim, in a system where judges tend to reward the friendliest parent.

“If your kid is being raped on the weekend and you are trying to restrict custody or go for sole custody because your child is having medical issues or is hysterical upon pickup, you are not going to look friendly to the court.”

Incautious calls by courts can bring tragedy.

The Center for Judicial Excellence’s dashboard logs nearly 1,000 children’s deaths nationwide, since 2008, in cases in which custody was contested over allegations of abuse. The issue, said Russell, is that the family court system was not designed and has not been trained to handle cases like these. 

“The majority of cases that come in are not domestic violence or child abuse cases,” said Russell. “Those all settle amicably; the parents are able to put the child’s best interests forward.” But when the case gets complicated, she said, untrained family courts too often fail to protect children. 

Kayden’s story — and the bill named after her 

On Aug. 6, 2018, 7-year-old Kayden Mancuso, from Bucks County, was murdered by her father Jeffrey Mancuso during court-ordered unsupervised custody time, which had been granted despite the mother raising safety concerns during custody litigation. Kayden’s mother, Kathy Sherlock, had submitted evidence to the court of the father’s abusive, violent history including criminal records and filed for a restraining order.

In 2019, a bill named after Kayden, and aimed at averting future tragedies, was introduced in Pennsylvania. Almost five years later, the latest version passed the Senate Judiciary Committee with a unanimous vote in October, but has not yet passed either full chamber of the General Assembly. 

The bill would:

• Make clear that the most important issue in custody cases is protection of the child
• Establish a hearing to review evidence after claims of abuse
• Require that a court-determined abusive party would be limited to supervised custody until that party could prove they do not pose a risk to the child’s health and safety
• Mandate ongoing, evidence-based training programs within courts regarding child abuse, domestic violence and the impact of child abuse and domestic violence on children.

State Sen. Steven Santarsiero, D-Bucks County, the prime sponsor of Kayden’s Law, said he is “cautiously optimistic” that the bill will pass soon.  

“Every stakeholder has been very supportive,” he said. “It was just fine tuning.” 

State Rep. Emily Kinkead, D-Brighton Heights, said she expects the bill to pass.

Kinkead, an attorney who serves on the House Judiciary Committee, said she had concerns that provisions in prior versions, which would have required professionals to supervise visits when there was an allegation of abuse, would be very difficult to execute given the lack of trained court supervisors. “If the courts are telling you that they can’t make it work, that’s something you should listen to,” said Kinkead. The updated bill suggests looking closely at each case to determine whether it requires a professional visitation supervisor. 

Last year President Joe Biden reauthorized the Violence Against Women’s Act, enacted in 1994, increasing services and support for survivors from underserved and marginalized communities including for LGBTQIA+ survivors of domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault and stalking. The act endorses provisions echoing Kayden’s Law’s planks, pledging federal funds to states that require courts to carefully consider abuse allegations, ensure that the right of a child to be with a protective parent is not secondary to the desire to improve the child’s relationship with the other parent and require training for judges. However, states are not required to take these measures. 

“Kayden’s Law is such low-hanging fruit,” Meier said. “Requiring that experts are truly experts in what they are testifying for, requiring training for judges and not ordering the [child’s] reunification with an alleged abuser seems so clear and necessary.”

While Kayden’s tragedy occurred in Pennsylvania, Colorado became the first state to officially pass Kayden’s Law in May. New York, Maryland, Montana and Illinois have also introduced similar legislation. California passed similar legislation in mid-October. 

An Allegheny County court spokesperson declined to respond to questions, saying the court can’t comment on anything related to pending legislation.

‘We just can’t side with abuse’

Kendra, a mom in Allegheny County whose real name is being withheld, said she endured almost six years of being “emotionally, mentally, spiritually” abused. Kendra was granted a PFA, but once it expired, she said, her husband would break into her house, vandalize her property and verbally abuse her in front of their two children.

“When I would call the police, they said they couldn’t do anything because his name was still on the deed of the house because we weren’t officially divorced yet,” Kendra said. 

Kendra said these events were very traumatizing for her and her children. Her son, then three years old, would lock the doors anywhere they went because he “wanted to keep the bad guys out.” 

Kendra has primary custody of her children, with her ex-husband having five hours per week plus every other weekend and some holidays. She notes that she found a way to finance the continued cost of a lawyer.

“What is happening to these women and children that don’t have the money? There were times I would get [lawyer bills] up to $2,000 to $4,000 every two weeks,” Kendra said. “The system is so perverted and twisted, it doesn’t protect women; men use kids as pawns and there’s no accountability unless women are in the financial position to keep going to court for as long as it takes.”  

“It still comes down to who has the most money for a better lawyer,” said Pollack, of the National Family Violence Law Center.

Neighborhood Legal Services, a federally funded program to provide legal aid, can help eligible households to navigate family courts. 

Meier said that abuse continues through generations in part because it is not acknowledged. 

“We just can’t side with abuse any longer,” Meier said. “So many kids are being intentionally harmed and traumatized, and it’s so frustrating that courts deny abuse all the time and still hold onto old fashioned and inaccurate standards. … We need to just keep calling it out or it will keep happening.”

The City of Pittsburgh officially declared November as Family Court Awareness month. Pollack led a press conference conducted by Mayor Ed Gainey’s office, which included statements from child survivors of abuse.

“As a survivor, you are told to tell the truth and you would be okay, but after hours of questioning and telling the truth, we were completely ignored,” said a child referred to as Nova, whose real name was withheld. “Everyone overlooked what we had to say, and it affected us greatly. The trauma caused by family court is real.”

Inaya does not want to give up on getting custody of her child, but it’s exhausting and expensive. She’s also unsure if more hearings will even make a difference.

“I shared what my daughter had told me, ‘Papa does bad things to me.’ And another time, she had said that he doesn’t stop,” she said. “I shared this in the court.” 

Correction: Neighborhood Legal Services provides legal aid to victims of domestic violence, and to clients in custody cases related to Protection from Abuse cases if there is a high risk of lethality or other safety factor. Subject to available resources, NLS represents clients in some types of family court cases in which custody is contested. The agency also helps clients in Allegheny, Beaver, Butler and Lawrence counties to navigate family courts. An earlier version of this story mischaracterized NLS’ availability. To seek legal help, click here.

Meg St-Esprit is a freelance journalist based in Bellevue. She can be reached at megstesprit@gmail.com or on Instagram and Twitter.

Erin Yudt is an editorial intern at PublicSource and can be reached at erin@publicsource.org.

This story was fact-checked by Punya Bhasin.

The post Updated: Kayden’s Law passes Pa. Senate, would change family court handling of child abuse allegations appeared first on PublicSource. PublicSource is a nonprofit news organization serving the Pittsburgh region. Visit www.publicsource.org to read more.

When Emily Loeb’s grandmother fled the Nazi regime in Germany in 1938, it was under the fiery skies of Kristallnacht, which translates to “night of broken glass.” 

Nearly a century later, as the director of programs and education at the Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh, Loeb continues to tell her family’s story in the same way her grandmother did. 

“She saw the synagogue burned to the ground, and then their house was threatened next.” 

Her grandmother fled with minutes to spare. “Her leaving was a moment of flight and panic. She was lucky she had secured a visa, but they were unable to get their parents visas.” 

Eventually, Loeb’s grandparents made it to the United States, but her great-grandparents were never heard from again after being transported to a ghetto in Poland in 1942. Loeb’s family lost 141 members to the Nazi regime — and they’ve used their story to educate about antisemitism ever since. 

Working toward a more robust model of Holocaust education

This June, Loeb had the opportunity to attend the Jewish Foundation for the Righteous Alfred Lerner Summer Institute for Holocaust Educators. Loeb was one of 28 Holocaust educators chosen from across the nation to attend the five-day event in Newark. Covering topics such as the legal system and medical community during the Third Reich, the fellowship is an intense experience, Loeb said. “This is not beginner-level information. It’s almost like a graduate course.” 

One of the biggest impacts from the fellowship, Loeb said, was hearing from some of the most experienced Holocaust teachers across the country.

“I think a lot of people don’t realize … they think the Holocaust is only taught in history class, but it’s taught in English, art, theater and social studies, too. Having lots of different info on hand to provide to teachers is really important.” 

The Holocaust Center provides a variety of ways to engage with the stories of the “heroes” of the Holocaust – from a library of books penned by local survivors, artifacts of the Jewish diaspora, from art contests, to their own series of comic books featuring Holocaust-upstanders called “CHUTZ-POW!”

Part of the Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh’s role in the region is to train local educators to teach the Holocaust, so Loeb hopes that the information and tactics she learned will positively impact students across a city and region still reeling from the most deadly antisemitic attack in U.S. history. Nearly five years after the events of 10/27 at the Pittsburgh synagogue that housed the Tree of Life, New Light and Dor Hadash congregations, Loeb and her colleagues are focused on applying their skills and knowledge to encourage students to be upstanders. Upstanders, she said, are kids who stand up against identity-based hate within their communities, rather than remaining mere bystanders.

“We have a mixture of teachers from public to private, parochial and non-parochial schools from surrounding counties attend our trainings here at the Holocaust Center,” Loeb said.

Antisemitism is on the rise

At the center, teachers hear from Holocaust survivors and their family members and are provided with resources such as comic books, videos and written materials to further study and then share. There are also school assemblies for middle school students and opportunities to visit the center itself for more hands-on learning.

“Since 10/27, the Holocaust Center has worked on developing a more robust educational effort to stand against antisemitism and the racism and xenophobia that accompanies it,” said Loeb. 

Antisemitic beliefs are still widely prevalent in the United States. The Anti-Defamation League tracks antisemitic attitudes and found that 18% of Americans believe Jews have too much power in the business world, and 22% believe Jews talk too much about what happened in the Holocaust. They also found a 36% increase in antisemitic incidents between 2021 and 2022.

Reaching local educators

For any teacher in the Pittsburgh area looking to further their education, Loeb encourages them to reach out for more information.

The Holocaust Center, currently located at Chatham University, will be housed in the new Tree of Life building, which does not yet have an opening date. The space will provide a central location for worship, healing and education. Loeb said she hopes this space will create room for memory and understanding. 

“Our community knows all too well that antisemitism did not end with the Holocaust because of how it shows up throughout history and continues to show up today” she said. “Antisemitism isn’t just a Jewish problem. It’s an everyone problem.”

By continuing to foster conversations, Loeb and her colleagues hope to prevent such horrific events from happening again. 

“Talking about it makes us aware we can’t just be passive when things happen in this community,” she said. “One of the biggest lessons was for us to see how our community came together — not just the Jewish community, but our entire community. We all need to do this together for each other.”

Meg St-Esprit is a freelance journalist based in Bellevue. She can be reached at megstesprit@gmail.com or on Twitter @megstesprit.

The post Holocaust educator works to strengthen community resilience and tolerance amid rising antisemitism appeared first on PublicSource. PublicSource is a nonprofit news organization serving the Pittsburgh region. Visit www.publicsource.org to read more.

Patrons to the Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre will see a new face in the lobby. In his time in the city so far, the company’s new Artistic Director Adam McKinney has made an effort to be visible at performances and interact with residents — which is not always encouraged in the field of ballet. 

“The manner in which I work to welcome people to make sure that people feel appreciated, seen and heard is a contradiction in ballet, right?” McKinney said in an interview with PublicSource. “Because we’re taught not always to speak openly. It has been received, I think, and very much appreciated.” 

On stage, dancers are largely silent while telling the story through movement, but McKinney plans to make his mark on the city through his voice as well as dance. Those are values, he says, he learned outside of dance that he works to bring to the art form.

On a recent walk Downtown, McKinney was moved by the bustling Cultural District — the theaters, murals and galleries create a vibrancy that is hard to miss as a newcomer to Pittsburgh. 

Pittsburgh was attractive to McKinney, in part, because of the way the individual art organizations work together to create something beautiful and meaningful. “It’s so special. It feels like we’re all working toward a common goal of ensuring that people and cultures are represented accurately,” he said. “And so I think that’s what I mean in terms of the very rich and vibrant art and culture scene that I’m excited about joining and participating in.” 

Adam McKinney, the new artistic director for the Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre (PBT), works with PBT artists Colin McCaslin and Tommie Lin O’Hanlon as they rehearse for the upcoming ballet “Sleeping Beauty” on Monday, April 24, 2023, in the Strip District. (Photos by Stephanie Strasburg/PublicSource)

That art scene is excited to have him participate, too, says Kati Gigler, the acting executive director of the Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre. “His artistic vision encompasses classical ballet’s history while looking toward the future of ballet as an ever-more innovative and inclusive art form. Adam has a true interest in people and bringing out the best in those around him,” she told PublicSource in an email.

McKinney began his new role in March, bringing an impressive resume to the city’s premier ballet company. Before moving to Pittsburgh, he was a tenured associate professor of dance at Texas Christian University. He also is the co-director of DNAWORKS, an organization dedicated to healing through the arts. After receiving his undergrad in dance from Butler University, followed by a master of arts in dance studies, race and trauma theories from New York University, McKinney toured the world in a variety of roles. He served as a U.S. embassy culture connect envoy, a project of the State Department, as well. 

In a city that has long struggled with race and identity, McKinney’s appointment also brings a lot of “firsts” to Pittsburgh. He is the first Black artistic director at the company as well as the first to identify as both gay and Jewish. When talking about himself, though, McKinney emphasizes experience and art over identity.  He also recognizes what his role means to those watching him. “I think that the more we can see ourselves represented in the people with whom we have relationships, the easier it is to see ourselves in the future.” 

McKinney’s arrival will have a significant impact on artistic youth in the city, said Cathryn Calhoun, director of education and community engagement at the August Wilson African American Cultural Center. 

“It is important to have representation in the arts community with Black arts leaders and educators because children want to see someone who looks like them, someone who has a similar background, someone they can relate to, someone they can aspire to be and someone that can be a role model,” she wrote in an email. “Representation in the arts community and in general has helped improve student outcomes and can shape how Black and Brown students imagine themselves in the world.” 

McKinney is careful not to lean too hard into — or be pigeonholed into — a singular identity. The representation matters, he said, but it is part of the larger story told by dance. 

“It’s about the work of ballet,” he said. He is focused on the work as well as the history and performance of the art form, which he says are independent of any ethnic heritage or boxes that he may check off on someone’s list. 

“That’s not to say that we need to work toward color blindness,” he said. “That’s impossible. But it is to say that the work doesn’t stop, especially in ballet.”

Meg St-Esprit is a freelance journalist based in Bellevue. She can be reached at megstesprit@gmail.com or on Twitter @megstesprit.

This story was fact-checked by Ladimir Garcia.

The post At Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre, new Artistic Director Adam McKinney seeks to create a space for everyone in dance appeared first on PublicSource. PublicSource is a nonprofit news organization serving the Pittsburgh region. Visit www.publicsource.org to read more.

When Mary Carroll and Lee Brigido became certified as foster parents, they were unsure what children would enter their home. The Bellevue couple first cared for some children during short-term respite stays. Very soon after being certified, though, they got a call from their caseworker at their foster care agency about a teenager who needed a safe place to land.

“They said there was a 14-year-old trans kid who was in the hospital for self-harm,” Carroll recounted. They were looking for a placement for the child and thought Carroll and Brigido, a queer couple themselves, might be able to meet the child’s needs. 

“They explained some things about their interests — like that they loved animals, art and music,” Carroll continued. She had the sense that this teen was supposed to be with them, and her partner felt the same pull. 

“This kid was made to cross paths with our lives,” said Brigido. 

“It’s hard when you hear about someone very much like you in some ways, who connects with things you understand and you’re interested in. It’s hard to say no to a past version of you,” Carroll added, blinking back tears.

While all foster parents in Allegheny County receive training in LGBTQIA+ issues, Carroll and Brigido are among a too-small number of queer foster homes in Allegheny County. 

The county contracts with the Hugh Lane Wellness Foundation to handle training foster parents in LGBTQIA+ competency. Their training program is called AFFIRM and is generally required for Allegheny County foster families.

Hugh Lane Executive Director Sarah Rosso said there is a need for families who are knowledgeable about queer youth. “And not just knowledgeable, but affirming as well. When we look at the child welfare systems across our region, we know that there’s a need for more families in general,” said Rosso. “And that’s especially true of families who are capable and willing to support transgender, nonbinary and LGB youth.” 

Outsized prevalence, elevated trauma

A 2020 survey of youth in foster care in New York City found that 34% of respondents identified as LGBTQIA+, which is a higher percentage than in the general population. With about 1,300 children in foster care in Allegheny County at any given time, that number is consistent with local findings, said Rosso. “The Allegheny County Youth Voice survey typically shows somewhere between 30-33% of older youth in out-of-home placement identify as part of the LGBTQ+ communities. This is consistent with national data.”

One East End teen ended up in foster care due mostly to their gender identity, said Cori Fraser. Fraser and their platonic life partner are foster parents to a 16-year-old child who is transgender. This is the couple’s second placement of an LGBTQIA+ child. Their oldest child, Corey, is now over 18 and living independently. 

When Fraser and their partner became certified to foster, they were very clear that they wanted to use their own experiences as queer individuals to help other kids. “We specifically came in saying, ‘We are here for queer kids, it matters less how old they are.’ Technically speaking, we have the most skill in the 12-and-up crowd, but if you have a 6-year-old trans kid in care, we will make that happen,” said Fraser. 

Fraser said Allegheny County was generally supportive of their child’s name change and gender-affirming care, but the treatment the child received in the rural county they came from was emotionally damaging. “The judge will not let kids start hormones, the guardian ad litem said it was not in their purview to do a name change,” said Fraser.  

Fraser said the need for more families like theirs is critical. “For trans kids, this is life or death, and I don’t think people realize that.”

Both foster families use Every Child Inc., one of Allegheny County’s contracted foster care providers. It’s the only local agency to receive the highest tier of recognition by All Children – All Families, a training program developed to promote inclusive and affirming practices in the child welfare system. 

Every Child’s chief engagement officer, Jaime Simmons, said placing queer kids in unsupportive foster homes just compounds the trauma of being in care. “Foster care is traumatic for every child. Can you imagine the abuse or neglect stemming from a child’s identity? That is the reality of some of the queer youth experiencing foster care.” 

Simmons said queer youth who do not reside in affirming homes sometimes run away, choosing housing instability over a non-affirming home. They may report increased levels of depression, anxiety and self-harm or suicidality.

Feeling less lonely

For Carroll and Brigido’s foster child, their gender identity contributed to emotional damage in their family of origin, and that trauma was compounded in foster care. 

Their foster child, who we’ll call Quinn at their request to protect privacy, is now 17 and lives in an independent living facility as they prepare for adulthood. They said their grandfather never understood how they felt. “Before I was in the foster care system, I lived with my grandfather and he was not supportive of my gender identity and sexuality. That affected a lot of my life, such as my mental health,” they said. 

It also affected their schoolwork. Since Quinn’s teachers used their preferred name and pronouns, the teen worked hard to stop their grandfather from interacting with the school — it made their home situation even more unsafe. “My grandfather loved what I used to be, not who I have grown and become. And yeah, that was very difficult for me. I’m sure it’s difficult for him.” 

Prior foster homes tossed Quinn into support groups they found unhelpful or flat-out questioned their identity. “I wish I heard more of, ‘What do you need? What can I do to help you? What can I do to make you feel more comfortable?’ Instead of just signing me up for a whole bunch of support groups at once.” 

When they came to Carroll and Brigido’s home, they found something different. “They helped me with my transitioning process physically and they also helped me trying to figure myself out and who I want to be, mentally,” Quinn said. The connections and resources the couple offered were helpful and supportive because both of them had walked a similar path.

Brigido said his own experiences as a queer person have shaped this entire experience. “You’re never going to fix the things in my life by proxy of another person’s life, but having lived experience in the LGBT community and being a teenager once, it gives me a clear path to forge ahead in a way that’s hopefully better for the kid than what we experienced.“ 

When there’s cause to advocate for Quinn, “I put my fighting gloves on a lot faster,” Brigido said, laughing. 

“I think that’s very important to have someone in your life who’s experienced the same things you do,” said Quinn. “It makes you feel less lonely in the world.”

Supporting identity while averting crisis 

Rosso said the prevalence of trans youth in the foster system is not yet fully understood. One reason may be the lack of support for biological families.

Hugh Lane is working to support families raising a biological child who is queer so that the family does not end up fractured. “Part of investing in families and communities also includes providing support and resources for parents who are struggling to support their LGBTQ+ children,” said Rosso.

The agency has spent the last five years building models that support families in their parenting and relationships with their queer children. “This has helped families move from rejecting behaviors, both intentional and unintentional, to more affirming behaviors.” 

Rosso said they are excited to collaborate nationally and expand their work, both on recruiting and training foster families and reducing the need for placements.  “We can’t just look at this from the perspective of trying to recruit more substitute caregivers.” 

Correction: Mary Carroll’s last name was incorrect in a prior version of this story.

Meg St-Esprit is a freelance journalist based in Bellevue. She can be reached at megstesprit@gmail.com or on Twitter @megstesprit.

This story was fact-checked by Terryaun Bell.

The post ‘I put my fighting gloves on a lot faster.’ How understanding foster parents may mean ‘life or death’ for trans kids. appeared first on PublicSource. PublicSource is a nonprofit news organization serving the Pittsburgh region. Visit www.publicsource.org to read more.

Content warning: This piece contains a description of a traumatic medical birth experience. 

She never set out to turn the world of maternal health care on its head, but local anesthesiologist Dr. Tracey Vogel may do just that. 

Working in obstetrics at Allegheny Health Network, she began her career focusing on how to make pregnant people more comfortable during delivery. A well-placed epidural or spinal block can make all the difference during a difficult birth, and she prided herself on being one of the only anesthesiologists that worked solely with pregnant people. 

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Vogel, through connecting with patients across Western Pennsylvania, began to notice a critical gap in maternal care for her patients. She was able to ease the physical pain they experienced on the delivery table — but what about the emotional pain they brought into the room with them? Many pregnant people enter the delivery room with a history of trauma related to previous birth experiences or sexual assault, though traditional obstetrics has often failed to acknowledge that. 

“Why don’t we think that birth is traumatic?” Vogel asked. 

“We are taught a social concept that birth should be beautiful; we should be happy,” she continued in an interview. “It’s always joyous. And we know that it’s not always joyful in the land of obstetrics.” 

The rosy image pregnant people see on social media neglects to highlight the trauma and emotional pain that often go hand-in-hand with pregnancy. When Vogel noticed this gap, she began to expand her view of what pain management could truly look like — a novel concept in obstetrics. As her vision broadened, Vogel began to bring trauma-informed counseling into the childbirth process, and then to teach that approach to a growing number of obstetrics professionals.

Maternal mental health care in the United States is abysmal. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, one in eight pregnant people experiences postpartum depression. Further research, such as a study completed in Texas in 2021 by Mathematica, found that half of the perinatal women diagnosed with postpartum depression do not receive appropriate mental health care, and that number was higher for Black and Hispanic women. A 2011 Harvard Medical School study found that Black women in New Jersey were less likely to receive care once postpartum depression was diagnosed. The United States has a higher maternal mortality rate than any other developed country in the world. Follow-up care is also lacking.

For pregnant people with a history of sexual assault or a previous traumatic birth, this critical gap in the healthcare system often leaves them approaching birth without any consideration given to their trauma history. 

Seeing the trauma in birth

With her colleague Dr. Sarah Homitsky, Vogel published a review article highlighting research that found that up to 44% of pregnant people considered their birth traumatic. If this number were so high, it would make sense that more doctors should practice trauma-informed care with pregnant patients. “I find it fascinating that when you look up the ICD-10 codes for birth trauma it’s all about the baby’s trauma,” said Vogel.

The first step Vogel took was to complete a 40-hour course for sexual assault counselors at Pittsburgh Action Against Rape. Once she began to understand how much a past history of trauma could complicate a birth, she began to think about how to incorporate trauma-informed care — before and after birth — into regular maternity care. 

Vogel envisioned similar approaches whether the trauma stemmed from assault or previous birth experiences. She wanted to help women prepare for their births in a way that acknowledged their experiences and their bodies’ trauma response to those experiences. She began seeing patients in this capacity in 2021 through the Alexis Joy D’Achille Center for Perinatal Mental Health at West Penn Hospital, in-person and virtually. With a tremendously positive response to the fledgling program, Vogel and her team then began to look at sharing what they had learned. To date, Vogel has educated more than 500 medical providers in trauma-informed obstetrical care.

Vogel is now working on curating a reading list and writing a training curriculum. Her goal is to eventually develop a credentialing package for other medical professionals to replicate the same standard of care at their institution. She’s begun to do some training through Allegheny Health Network and some through a company Vogel developed, The Empowerment Equation.

Adding support and respect to birth

Trauma-informed maternal care might sound complex — and it is. At the same time, Vogel found that some very simple steps provide mothers with a sense of control that was lacking in their previous traumatic experiences. 

Ta Jané Nolen, a mom of two and a Director of Product Management at a clothing retailer, sought out Vogel after a traumatic first birth in 2019 followed by a difficult ectopic pregnancy in 2020. A series of medical conditions such as placenta accreta, blood clots, and a transfusion-related lung injury that left her feeling like she was drowning led to a long recovery after her first birth. The ectopic pregnancy compounded her trauma. 

When she found herself pregnant again in 2021, she was nervous. “I definitely tried to avoid going to the hospital for anything,” she said. “I just didn’t want to, you know, end up back in that position.” She felt powerless over her health. 

Her primary doctor connected her with Vogel. Nolen felt, at that point, that she had someone in her corner who not only heard her fears but wanted to prevent another traumatic delivery. 

“I think what was really significant is that it wasn’t just, ‘We’ll make a plan. We’ll figure it out. It’s gonna be fine,’” said Nolen. “It was really that she put me at the head of the table, right? And said, ‘This is your pregnancy. This will be your child’s birth. How can we help you feel more comfortable about it?’” She had not experienced that type of autonomy before in her medical care. 

Her daughter was born without complication — a redeeming experience for Nolen and her husband. “I didn’t want my previous story to be the end,” she said. 

Amy Walsh, a hypnotherapist and mom of two in Kennedy Township, also sought Vogel’s care for similar reasons. “I saw her in preparation for my second birth, but it was actually about getting over the trauma from my first.” 

Despite what she describes as a detailed birth plan, Walsh found all of her expectations quickly go out the window when she delivered her first child two years ago. Instead, Walsh found herself, withheld from food, on a forced Pitocin drip for five days. A rotating string of doctors managed her care but all of the focus was on delivering the baby — not on Walsh’s quickly deteriorating mental health. 

At the end of five long days, her son was delivered via C-section. Due to an epidural error, Walsh’s legs continued to move involuntarily. She was strapped down. “I wanted to have this special bonding experience with the baby, but instead my head was spinning with fentanyl.” 

Walsh and her husband both had PTSD after the birth of their child, but because the baby was healthy, the birth was considered a success, said Walsh.

For her second pregnancy, Walsh’s doctor connected her to Vogel. The experience, she said, was night and day.

“If I wouldn’t have had Dr. Vogel talking to my care team, I don’t know what would have happened,” she said. “Because of that, I got flagged as a trauma patient and they really made sure everyone was respectful from start to finish.” 

Vogel acted as an intermediary between Walsh and the delivering doctor. Having someone in her corner changed the entire experience. “My primary emotions the first time were feeling unsupported, disrespected and abandoned,” she said. “My second birth was healing.”

Walsh’s second delivery reflects many of the experiences Vogel strives to create. “We

keep everything calm, quiet,” the doctor said. “We don’t have trainees. We don’t want beginner folks doing epidurals or spinal [blocks] for people with a history of trauma.” 

She also advocates for the use of anti-anxiety medications — traditionally withheld from patients — during delivery. “There’s plenty of really solid research studies out there looking at various types of anxiety medications. And at low doses, they are very safe for the baby. That seems to be what everyone’s afraid of, but they’re not considering the mother’s psychological health at these times.”

Sharing the knowledge

Armed with data and the positive experiences of patients since the inception of this program, Vogel said she believes a shift can occur. The medical community is finally looking more closely at maternal health care. 

“My underlying thought is that western medicine has stripped so much away to make it a medical procedure, to make it convenient and fast and physical, rather than the emotional experience that it is,” she said. She’s calling for “a shift back to treating women with respect in terms of birth.”

As Vogel and AHN work to spread what they’ve learned to other hospital systems, there are a few key things that they want to focus on. First, patients need a practitioner to listen to their fears without judgment — they need for their experience to be validated. 

Beyond that, Vogel is working to develop more comprehensive screening tools and questions for patients. The Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale, today’s most commonly used screening tool, has come under criticism recently for missing key signs of postpartum depression, especially in low-income patients. The tool does not screen for trauma — just depression. 

There’s also a need for trauma-informed gynecological care as a whole. Vogel has been asked to consult with patients with a history of sexual trauma to talk through various gynecological procedures, such as having a polyp or fibroid removed. For a person who had sexual trauma, being strapped down and placed under anesthesia can feel like being assaulted all over again. 

“Some patients won’t have their surgeries unless they have this kind of service, and the surgery is really indicated for their particular condition,” Vogel said.

She’s been called in for trans patients — another overlooked population in obstetrical care — who are delivering babies so that the entire team can be respectful of their unique birthing needs. 

“It’s very odd for an anesthesiologist to work just in obstetrics,” Vogel said. “But it puts me in a very unique position to see things differently every single day.”

Correction: Dr. Vogel and Dr. Homitsky wrote a review paper highlighting studies on trauma and childbirth, including research finding that up to 44% of pregnant people consider their births to be traumatic. A previous version of this story mischaracterized their role in that research.

Meg St-Esprit is a freelance journalist based in Bellevue. She can be reached at megstesprit@gmail.com or on Twitter @megstesprit.

This story was fact-checked by Dakota Castro-Jarrett.

The post A Pittsburgh doctor aims to take some of the trauma out of childbirth appeared first on PublicSource. PublicSource is a nonprofit news organization serving the Pittsburgh region. Visit www.publicsource.org to read more.

Balancing college and a service industry job, Roberta’s mental health plummeted during the pandemic. The 50-year-old mother of one in the North Hills, who chose to withhold her last name due to the stigma around mental health treatment, began to see ads for Done.

She was intrigued. The entirely online mental health platform promised a diagnosis and medication without any hurdles. 

Roberta had been in need of psychiatric care for years. “I had been slogging through my insurance to see who I might click with. Then, the threat of actually calling and possibly being turned away. It takes a lot of ambition and courage, and focus,” she said. 

Done got her an appointment, for which she paid out-of-pocket. It left her feeling “icky” afterward. “The doctor came in and reminded me of a character from ‘Jersey Shore.’ Seriously, gold chain, tank top and sweating brow,” she said. “I cannot make this stuff up. He diagnosed me with about three questions and prescribed me a controlled substance.” 

Done did not respond to a request for comment on this story. In a statement following coverage on Good Morning America, Done highlighted: “All clinicians that work on the Done platform are psychiatric board-certified medical professionals. They treat ADHD and other mental health conditions, are dedicated to educating people on the medical knowledge, with a patient-centered mindset.”

Prior to March 2020, Roberta would have to see a psychiatrist or primary care physician in person to receive Adderall, the medication she was prescribed. The Ryan Haight Act required a face-to-face visit before prescribing any controlled substance, such as stimulants like Ritalin and Adderall that are used to treat ADHD.

But in response to the pandemic, regulatory agencies loosened restrictions around telehealth so that patients could continue to receive care. The new flexibility also prompted a rise in online third-party psychiatric platforms like Done and Cerebral. Now, therapy and prescribing can be done virtually.

These platforms, which heavily target users in Instagram and Facebook ads, have received mixed reviews from consumers and medical professionals. 

These services found a foothold in the local market, as in communities across the country, due to long waits at many psychiatric practices. A shortage of mental health staff, a rise in demand for crisis mental health services and burned-out professionals have created an untenable situation for many people in the region seeking care. Nationally, the demand for mental health services has nearly doubled since pre-pandemic times, according to a 2021 survey by the American Psychological Association. Wait times to see a new practitioner can be long, which is frustrating and even dangerous to those in crisis. 

Increased local access to telehealth was essential to Pittsburghers during the pandemic, especially for talk therapy. However, the relaxed federal laws surrounding prescription medication have had both positive and negative effects on patients in the region. 

The benefits of loosened restrictions

“Two years ago, before the pandemic, my no-show rate was ridiculous. It was up to 30% to 50%,” said Dr. Tania Kannadan, a psychiatrist with Allegheny Health Network [AHN]. “When they opened up telemedicine, it went down to nearly zero.”

The downside: “For two years, I was an overheated engine with back-to-back appointments every day,” Kannadan said. 

For Nia, a 48-year-old mother and educator who lives in the Ohio River Valley, telehealth felt like a godsend. 

She’s struggled with her ADHD symptoms for years but has had a difficult time navigating Pittsburgh’s provider network. “It’s been madness trying to find someone to prescribe my medication,” she said.

When she began to see ads for online psychiatry services, she was interested. It felt like she finally had a solution without any hurdles. Nia also liked that she could seek out Black practitioners — something that the Pittsburgh area is short on. 

After exploring the new crop of online services, she began seeing a nurse practitioner located in Philadelphia via ZocDoc. He prescribed her Vyvanse, a regulated amphetamine that could not have been prescribed virtually two years ago. 

For Nia, the benefits of the eased restrictions outweigh the risks. “If people are going to abuse meds, they will find a way even if they go in person,” she said. The risk of abuse “shouldn’t prevent people like me who really need it from having greater access.” 

Should the law revert to 2019 standards, Nia is unsure if she will be able to trek to Philadelphia a few times per year to maintain her medical care. “At that point, I would definitely try to handle it locally first.”

Roberta said she felt no confidence in her first online doctor. She waited a month to even try the script, which then made her feel jittery and nauseated. Eventually, amid legal troubles embroiling Done and other companies, her pharmacy — and several others she tried — refused to fill her script. 

Both Cerebral and Done have become embattled in legal issues due to the high rate of stimulants they prescribe. At various points over the last several years, major pharmacies such as Walgreens and CVS have halted filling stimulant prescriptions from the companies due to concerns over the volume of prescriptions.

PublicSource reached out to Cerebral for comment, but did not receive a substantive response.

Roberta switched to Plushcare, which has a similar business model. “Plushcare has been a much more positive experience,” she said. “I have seen one doctor. She and I discussed a medication I was anxious to try. She suggested we try something else. She was worried about interactions with my antidepressant.” 

Plushcare let Roberta know this month that her doctor is leaving. “This is frustrating,” she said. Now with new insurance in 2023, she is hopeful to find someone local, but is not optimistic. Her October effort to schedule with a new primary care physician landed her a February 2023 appointment. 

The problem with loosened restrictions

For many patients like Nia and Roberta, online mental health services felt like a solution. Some professionals believe this solution should be tempered with caution. 

“Given the lack of access to treatment for mental health and substance use disorders that preceded the pandemic, the suspension of the Ryan Haight Act helped meet the increased demand for mental health services and needed medications,” Tanya Fabian, director of pharmacy research and pharmacy services at UPMC Western Psychiatric Hospital, told PublicSource in an email. “However, with fully online providers, it becomes more difficult to ensure quality and safety, especially for new patients.” 

Katherine Pfaff, a spokesperson for the Drug Enforcement Administration [DEA], told PublicSource in an email, “The current flexibilities are contingent on the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency,” which shows no signs of ending.

Kannadan, the AHN psychiatrist, said that returning entirely to pre-pandemic restrictions is not an option. There are many benefits to telehealth services. They just need to be regulated more closely. 

“I have patients in Erie and the southern tip of Washington County,” Kannadan said. “They used to drive three hours to see me for a very simple appointment.” The changes in telehealth have allowed her to provide more continuous care to these families without such a burden on their time and finances. 

More provider accountability would allow critical access while limiting the potential for abuse, according to Fabian. Pharmacists are on the front lines of health care, she said. “If all members of the healthcare team uphold the ethical principle that it is sometimes better to do nothing than to do something that causes more harm, that would be a good start.” 

ADHD diagnoses in adults doubled between 2010 and 2017, according to a report from the medical journal JAMA. Overall, amphetamine prescriptions have also risen, increasing 2.5-fold between 2006 and 2016. These numbers are expected to continue to climb when new data is aggregated. An informal survey by ADDitude found that 22% of adult respondents began medicating their ADHD during the pandemic. 

Kannadan sees the rise in amphetamine prescriptions as part of the larger drug addiction crisis in the country — but one that can be reined in if the DEA provides more oversight. 

Accessing mental health treatment in Pittsburgh

While Pittsburgh does have a shortage of mental health professionals, the situation is not as dire as it may at first feel for those seeking treatment, Kannadan said. She points to in-state telehealth providers like Nulton, located in Johnstown, or Talkiatry, which functions virtually in a similar manner to many brick-and-mortar institutions. “They have actual trained physicians who are thorough.” 

The length of waitlists can also be misleading. Many patients, said Kannadan, call to get an appointment during a time of crisis but decide not to keep their appointment when the time comes. For those who do keep appointments, she said, “The waitlist isn’t as long as you think it is.”

People seeking mental health services in the Pittsburgh area should call practices directly. While the city’s major hospital systems, UPMC and AHN, have central scheduling centers that work great for most appointments, those with urgent mental health needs can check to see if a facility has its own triage line. In addition, Allegheny County partners with UPMC’s resolve Crisis Services for emergency care that can transition patients into ongoing treatment. Individuals can also show up at any emergency room, with or without insurance, for immediate psychiatric intervention. 

Fabian noted that the current problematic telehealth services arose to meet a need. While there is room for improvement, there are redeeming factors if oversight is improved.

“The shift we are seeing,” she said, “is an attempt to safely fill a critical gap in access to care for those with mental health or substance use disorders while ensuring that there are appropriate safety measures in place to avoid creating a whole new set of problems.”

Meg St-Esprit is a freelance journalist based in Bellevue. She can be reached at megstesprit@gmail.com or on Twitter and Instagram.

This story was fact-checked by Terryaun Bell. 

The Jewish Healthcare Foundation has contributed funding to PublicSource’s healthcare reporting.

The post <strong>Remote therapy and online prescribing, born of COVID-19 necessity, now face scrutiny</strong> appeared first on PublicSource. PublicSource is a nonprofit news organization serving the Pittsburgh region. Visit www.publicsource.org to read more.

“Abortion for *lethal* fetal anomalies is now *illegal* in Ohio. I’m a high-risk obstetrician here. I diagnose birth defects. So some point soon I may look someone in the eyes & say that they, against their will, will carry to term, undergo delivery & then have their child die.” 

Pittsburgh native Dr. David Hackney’s tweet on June 27 gained the attention of a nation.

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Hackney is a Cleveland-based maternal-fetal medicine specialist and chair of the Ohio section of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, and since then he has been doing much more than providing medical care. He’s advocating for patient rights on social media, through published op-eds, through media interviews and by pushing back against laws that are not working for his patients.

But there are no easy answers, and Hackney is among doctors in Ohio who are having to send their patients to Pennsylvania and other states for abortion care. That new role stems from the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to nix Roe v. Wade, allowing states to enact a shifting patchwork of restrictions and bans that is nearly as disorienting and wrenching to many providers as it is to patients.

“I feel like the news cycle is ending and we still don’t know what to do,” Hackney told PublicSource. 

In an Aug. 7 MSNBC interview, Hackney confirmed that his prediction had become a reality for his colleagues.

“We the doctors, especially the high-risk obstetricians in the state of Ohio, have now gone through the lived experience of having to have this happen, having to see patients with serious birth defects, lethal birth defects in some cases, who have not been able to receive abortion care and it is hard to express how tremendously sad it is.”

Where the laws stand 

In Ohio, abortions are restricted after 6 weeks’ gestation except in cases with risk of severe harm or death to the pregnant person. West Virginia’s lone abortion clinic ceased performing abortions in June, in anticipation of pending legislation – still embroiled in legal machinations – that would make abortion a felony within the state.

Abortion in Pennsylvania is legal up to the 24th week of pregnancy; late-term abortions in medically necessary situations are also allowed.

Pittsburgh, the closest major city for many patients in those states, is quickly becoming an abortion destination with two abortion clinics in the region and two major hospital systems. 

The Allegheny Reproductive Health Center told TribLive in early July that they had seen a threefold increase in abortions since Ohio and West Virginia further restricted abortion access, but told PublicSource in an email they are no longer sharing that information in an attempt to protect their staff, volunteers and patients.

Both of Pittsburgh’s major hospital systems told PublicSource in email statements that anyone from out of state who is experiencing a medical event related to pregnancy such as incomplete miscarriage, ectopic pregnancy, septic pregnancy or other issues, can show up at their emergency departments without legal risk. This commitment relates to the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act, or EMTALA, which requires hospitals to provide medical screening exams and prohibits hospitals with ERs from refusing treatment.

UPMC Vice President of Media Relations Gloria Kreps responded to PublicSource’s outreach with confirmation that all of its emergency departments adhere to the EMTALA.

Dominique Buccina, strategic communications advisor for Allegheny Health Network, assured people they can show up and receive care. “AHN continues to provide the full spectrum of women’s health services to all who seek our care, as the law allows, including those who travel from other states, and particularly in cases where a patient with a life-threatening circumstance presents in one of our emergency departments.” 

Barriers to care

Ohioans, and other residents in nearby states with strict abortion laws, may think they can simply call or drive to Pennsylvania to access an abortion. But it’s not nearly that easy.

Telehealth options exist for people who want abortion pills, but those are only effective until around 11 weeks of pregnancy. 

Pennsylvania’s abortion law is more expansive than its neighbors, but numerous barriers stand in the way, including a major backlog in provider availability given the rising numbers. 

Here are some of the roadblocks one may encounter:

A logistical — and ethical —mess 

If one of Hackney’s Ohio-based patients needs an abortion, such as when the baby they are carrying has a fetal anomaly that will result in suffering or death right after birth, he starts making calls to Pennsylvania and Michigan providers.

“We don’t have a singular pathway at the moment,” he said. “We are in conversations … with different abortion providers in different states. And we are definitely grateful for all of the colleagues out of state that we’ve been talking to and making good-faith efforts to facilitate our patients.”

Hackney added that he faces the ethical dilemma of whether he should “pull strings” to connect an abortion-seeker with a fetal anomaly who may potentially end up ahead of a “21-year-old who doesn’t want to be pregnant or maybe an adult who was raped but is in good physical health.” He questions if any one case is more “meaningful” than the others. 

Deadlines and ‘bad actors’

Another issue some face is that delays can put them past the 24-week cutoff in Pennsylvania. 

Dr. Cindy Duke, a Las Vegas OB-GYN and fertility specialist, said anyone seeking an out-of-state abortion, especially in a medical emergency such as an ectopic pregnancy, shouldn’t just get into their car and start driving to an emergency room. Instead, reach out to Planned Parenthood for connections to providers. 

Hackney said patients are generally directed to the National Abortion Federation to find a provider.

Duke said knowing your rights under EMTALA helps control for “bad actors” in hospitals who may not agree with your decision and try to withhold care.

Some Ohioans and other out-of-state pregnant people may be trying to reach out to individual OB-GYN offices in Pennsylvania, but Duke explained that they are often advised not to reveal if they provide abortions over the phone. Patients may ask to schedule a virtual consultation to determine this.

The 24-hour rule and its ‘gray zone’

In many states, including Pennsylvania, abortion-seekers must wait 24 hours after counseling with a provider to actually begin treatment. Hackney said this barrier “has never served a medical need” and is causing issues for those seeking care. 

“Now that patients are having to travel out of state, the impact of the 24-hour waiting period is more severe,” he said, calling it a “hassle.” 

Hackney explained that most surgical abortions after the first trimester require a period of cervical preparation before the surgery can be performed. This usually consists of placing laminaria or Dilapan in the cervix for 24 hours before going to the operating room. 

“There is varying opinion if the placement of laminaria constitutes ‘starting’ the abortion with regards to the 24-hour waiting period or if the 24-hour waiting period just applies to the surgery itself,” he said. “If a patient is out of state and needs cervical preparation and the law is interpreted at its most conservative, then they would need to arrive in an outside state, initiate the 24-hour waiting period, then at the end of the 24-hour waiting period have the laminaria/Dilapan placement and then wait another 24 hours.” It leads to additional time and cost for travel, from longer hotel stays to more days off of work, sometimes without pay. 

In the case of patients crossing state lines, Hackney said being able to start that 24-hour waiting period over the phone would make more sense, though it’s his opinion that no 24-hour period would be best.

For now, he said, this is a “gray zone” that isn’t well defined.

“Though [abortion is] always safer than having to carry a pregnancy all the way to term … the risk does go up every week,” he said, adding that this makes reducing barriers within the Ohio to Pennsylvania abortion pipeline all the more necessary, especially for those whose health is at risk.

Providers are risking their livelihoods

Duke is a Hopkins and Yale-trained specialist who has taken to social media to educate the country about how abortion restrictions are impacting pregnant patients and endangering lives and livelihoods.

Some laws, she said, such as those in Ohio, require “waiting until [an ectopic pregnancy] is a direct threat to people’s lives. … It means you have to wait until her blood pressure is so low, you’re concerned, that her heart rate is so concerning, that’s called hemodynamic instability,” she said.

She said that across the country, doctors are asking legal teams the same question: How long do they have to wait to help someone without risking their careers and facing legal penalties?

Hackney takes issue with Ohio’s unclear guidelines on when an abortion is essential for a pregnant person, noting that certain medical conditions like multiple sclerosis are clearly identified as reasons an abortion might be considered, but other conditions like cancer aren’t clearly defined. 

Doctors, he said, are left confused about when they can treat patients with serious conditions who may need an abortion. 

“I would presume cancer would always be a threat to maternal health, but again, you have criminal penalties, and it’s not spelled out,” Hackney said. “Are you at risk of some sort of legal jeopardy?

“A whole universe of potential indications, including cancer and kidney disease, are unaddressed and thus unclear.”

Meg St-Esprit is a freelance journalist based in Bellevue. She can be reached at megstesprit@gmail.com or on Twitter @MegStEsprit.

Alex Frost is a freelance journalist based in Cincinnati. She can be reached at alexfrost@frost-freelance.com, or Twitter @alexfrostwrites

This story was fact-checked by Ladimir Garcia.

The Jewish Healthcare Foundation has contributed funding to PublicSource’s healthcare reporting.

The post The Ohio-PA abortion pipeline is fraught with barriers appeared first on PublicSource. PublicSource is a nonprofit news organization serving the Pittsburgh region. Visit www.publicsource.org to read more.

In recent months, debates about teaching race and racism have leaped from textbooks and classrooms into news, social media and people’s living rooms.

And many parents of school-aged kids in the Pittsburgh region have been trying to make sense of the power plays and controversies surrounding this central question: How should we, as a society, teach children about historic and systemic racism?

To help understand the debate over what’s sometimes (though inaccurately) called Critical Race Theory, we talked to several parents to find out exactly how they are processing the tidal wave of information — and the very different viewpoints — coming their way.

But first, we’d like to explain the terms and clear some distortions. Two key terms are used when referring to instruction on race and racism in the classroom. One is “diversity, equity and inclusion” [DEI] education, and another is Critical Race Theory [CRT]. The terms mean different things, but many debates among residents and school boards have conflated the two (sometimes in an attempt to intentionally muddy the debate).

Those who criticize “Critical Race Theory” cite concerns for their kids’ self-esteem. If their white kids have to think critically about the racism behind the Civil War or slavery, they might struggle with negative feelings of self-worth about being white. Those who support DEI education believe that a deep understanding of racism and social justice issues is necessary to create a more just society. But is that actually Critical Race Theory?

Charles A. Price, a Temple University associate professor in the College of Education and Human Development, explains why it isn’t. For one thing, Critical Race Theory is a college-level sociological concept that’s more than 40 years old and involves an in-depth examination of systemic inequalities such as redlining or unequal access to health care that have fueled racism in America. The emphasis there is on college-level — it’s not a curriculum meant for younger students.

“Why in the world would anyone want to teach pre-college students CRT?” Price wrote in an email. “Why not instead teach them what CRT was created to address: the workings of race, class, inequality, injustice in the USA?”

This might sound like two sides of the same coin, but CRT isn’t simply education on inequity and historical racism. It’s a deep dive into the social construct of race that has led to racist power structures in this country, and a deep dive into sociological thinking that is beyond the scope of K-12 education.

But that doesn’t mean race and inequity shouldn’t be taught. Price suggests that educators can teach valuable age-appropriate lessons by asking honest questions. An example: How did otherwise rational people create the irrational and destructive system of slavery?

Medina Jackson is the director of engagement for the University of Pittsburgh’s P.R.I.D.E. [Positive Racial Identity Development in Early Education] program. The program’s goal is to help Black children understand race and embrace their ethnicity and heritage. Given the racial progress the country has made through recent social justice movements such as Black Lives Matter, she is not surprised at this new outcry against what detractors call CRT.

“Racial progress accompanied by racist backlash is a historical pattern,” she wrote in an email to PublicSource.

She noted that the United Daughters of the Confederacy, a hereditary association established in 1894, was created to distribute propaganda to schools after emancipation. The group lied about the negative nature of slavery and praised the Confederacy. The current backlash is not any different in Jackson’s view. “Education has long been a socio-political battleground and those who are fearful of a just society are using CRT as the current boogeyman to miseducate families and maintain white systemic advantage and related interests.”

Jackson went on to explain that a firm grip of the history and system that our nation was built upon are actually crucial for moving forward as a society.

“We can’t expect [children] to NOT perpetuate racism, nor can we expect them to actively challenge racism if we don’t educate them on what it is and how it shows up in everyday life and across systems,” she wrote.

How exactly, though, do we do that?

PublicSource invited people of all perspectives to tell us how their schools are handling lessons of racism and their views on “Critical Race Theory.” We sought out a diversity of opinions through this form (and we’re open to still hearing more). We also sought perspectives through local parenting groups and community conversations. Many people did not want to participate with their names attached because of how divisive the topic is. Though the people who responded come from a variety of backgrounds, the majority voiced a need for a truthful telling of racism in history.

‘What is Critical Race Theory?’ training, hosted by the Republican Committee of Robinson Township

While reporting this article, I had firsthand experience with the debate around diversity and equity education. I joined the crowd in a packed banquet room at Rockefeller’s Bar and Grille in Kennedy Township for an August training on “Critical Race Theory” hosted by the Republican Committee of Robinson Township, along with other community groups. Retired Republican Judge Cheryl Allen, who was the first Black female judge elected to the Pennsylvania Superior Court in 2007, was the featured speaker. The crowd erupted with boos as the judge rattled off names like Derrick Bell, Nikole Hannah-Jones, Don Lemon, Barack and Michelle Obama and other prominent Black leaders.

Allen did not deny racism exists in Pittsburgh. She said, “I still remember when the pools were segregated, and the bus was segregated.” If she saw a person who looked like her on TV, they were either subservient or in handcuffs. “But CRT would teach my 19-year-old grandson that he is limited,” she went on to say. Allen told the nearly all-white crowd that there is no systemic racism in this country, only individual acts of racism by individual bad actors. “Equity is always at someone’s expense.”

The event aligned Critical Race Theory with Marxism and urged parents to pull their children out of public schools if the threat cannot be stopped. Allen told the audience that while the Ku Klux Klan has killed “only 4,000 Blacks,” Planned Parenthood kills that many daily. The audience shouted “Genocide!”

Similar events are being organized across the Pittsburgh region. Though not all are as overtly focused on race on the surface, they have a similar message about how liberalism is degrading American society.

Just across the river from the Robinson meeting, racial tensions continue in Sewickley after the firing of several Sewickley Academy administrators in July, including the school’s director of diversity, equity, inclusion and social justice.

Dominic Odom, parent of a child at Sewickley Academy

When the drama unfolded at Sewickley Academy, Dominic Odom, the mother of a Black son in the private school, knew she needed to take action. While her son has never experienced overt racism during his time at the school, he has faced microaggressions from students and implicit bias from staff. She was heartened by the school’s previous commitment to diversify its staff, students and curriculum. The sudden staff terminations shook the modicum of safety she felt for her son. She formed a community coalition and requested a meeting with the school.

Throughout the years she has lived in Sewickley, rumors circulated about conversations among some white parents in the community. “The comments were that Black kids are diluting the caliber of Sewickley Academy because they are all here on scholarship.” While Odom did not hear the comments herself, she can’t help but have them linger in her mind as she worries for her son’s safety.

While the community group has ongoing plans to work with the school, Odom is debating whether she feels safe sending her son back there, and she questions how some groups can be against looking at systemic issues in history. “It’s social science and law. If they are looking at why people along the river have a high incidence of cancer, and they are mostly poor white or Black working class, that’s not Critical Race Theory, that’s fact.”

Liz Grater, Sewickley Academy alum

In the 20 years since Liz Grater graduated Sewickley Academy, the student population has changed. It has become more diverse, and Grater is furious that the academy does not seem to want the curriculum to reflect important truths. “The term CRT has been weaponized by the far right to criticize and dismiss the efforts of equity and justice advocates. What seems so critical to me is to teach students how to be anti-racist; how can you argue that’s not a worthy goal? And to do that, one must understand how systemic racism works. Efforts to erase the stories of the obstacles, trials and triumphs people of color and other marginalized populations face in the United States are part of a partisan, politically driven effort to dismiss, minimize or ignore the systemic racism and other inequalities that continue to exist today.”

Grater penned a letter to the school’s Board of Trustees: “I urge you: do not yield to threats from the Sewickley Parents Organization; instead, double down on your commitment not just to diversity and inclusion, but to equity and social justice as well. Be the school you want to be, that fosters ‘a deep understanding and appreciation of our connections with one another and those beyond our borders, as well as our obligation and responsibility to serve and lead inherent in these bonds.’”

Grater further explained: “Words have become meaningless at this point; only the school’s actions can speak for them now.”

Pat Drogowski, parent of a 2001 graduate of the Avonworth School District

The Avonworth School District, located about 15 minutes north of Downtown, is comprised of mostly white students. Yet, they recently adopted an antiracism resolution that appears to have garnered wide community support. Pat Drogowski is a parent to a 2001 graduate of the district and is pleased at how involved the community has been in supporting this resolution — especially given how other suburban districts with similar demographics have handled the topic.

The Avonworth School District has a committee dedicated to the topic, has hosted book studies and guest speakers and sought input on how to improve their curriculum. The board voted in June to hire Insight Education Group, a national company, to complete an equity study for the district.

“The parents’ comments in support were productive, telling, thoughtful and deemed it a necessary process conducted by professionals,” Drogowski said.

The professionals brought in by the school district made suggestions for improvement. One such change is the introduction of a reading curriculum called Wit and Wisdom by Great Minds, which expands the spectrum of literature kids are exposed to as a way to broaden conversations. “A second grader told me the last book he remembered reading was about civil rights,” Drogowski said. A local Facebook group devoted to the topic, Avonworth Against Racism, serves as an online space for these conversations. Their mission is “actively work towards change in our area/school district/council to support anti-racism in our community. We believe that Black and brown lives matter.”

Annie Moon, teacher for PA Cyber and parent of three kids, Woodland Hills School District

Annie Moon previously taught in the Mars Area School District (MASD), which has recently received attention for its anti-CRT stance. On July 26, the district proposed a change to its mission statement to include a “pro-patriotism” statement. Board member J. Dayle Ferguson said that “social theories such as Holocaust denial, the 1619 Project, 9/11 conspiracy theory, Critical Race Theory, to just name a few, will not be presented to students unless presented to the school board in a public meeting.” [Editor’s note: There is overwhelming evidence to confirm the horrors of the Holocaust and that the World Trade Center was destroyed by aircraft hijacked by terrorists rather than a U.S. government conspiracy. The debate over the 1619 Project and Critical Race Theory deals in disagreements over the details and motivations of people in history. There is no denying the harms of slavery and ongoing racism.]

Moon has spent time recently reflecting on the stance taken by MASD. “As someone who used to teach there, I’m not surprised, but I still find it scary.” She knows her view wouldn’t be popular in the district. “I guess some of the parents in Mars would find it scary that I have no problems with CRT. I have no problem with my white kids learning the actual history of our nation versus what I learned in school. People are worried about white kids being sad or it hurting their self-esteem. Hopefully it will make them sad, but I don’t think we give kids enough credit. They are able to understand and process far more than we think. I’d be all for these opportunities being available to every kid in our schools. I guess, overall I’m about truth telling. Honestly though, telling the truth is complicated and takes more work and intensive parenting. Some days I understand people who create a happy, conflict-free bubble for their kids, even though I worry for those kids when the bubble pops.”

Jessie Robles, mom of four, Moon Area School District

Jessie Robles is a mom of three school-aged kids and one adult child. She was raised in the Seneca Valley School District and considers herself centrist on many topics — preferring to approach them with what she considers to be a critical and thoughtful eye. She ran for Coraopolis borough council as a Republican in 2017 but did not win. She is glad her kids got to spend time in the Cornell School District, which is much more racially and economically diverse, before their recent move to an affluent white area. “We are in the Moon Area School District now which is way different than the district we moved from. I could see parents being in an uproar about it here.”

She understands the insular bubble many local families have been in. That’s just how it was in Seneca Valley in Butler County. “I think a lot of it is simply not being exposed to anything outside of their bubble,” she wrote. “I think a lot of people back home that say All Lives Matter really are saying it because they just don’t understand what Black Lives Matter really means. They think it’s offensive because they just don’t get it. You have to experience some things to understand. You have to WANT to understand, too.”

She tries not to shy away from these conversations. “I am very open about talking about this stuff with my kids. But I guess when it comes to school, what will they teach specifically? To me, there is a time and place for certain things. I don’t necessarily think they should avoid the subject. But the approach is important to me. And I feel like school is also a place where kids should learn and things should be neutral. Like I wouldn’t want them teaching religion.

“It’s such a touchy subject and you aren’t going to please people either way. I think getting parents’ feelings on things is important. But it’s also crazy to teach history without including everything about it. If people are so uncomfortable about things that happened in the past, that should be a huge sign of why we need change. We need to teach history how it actually was so we can learn and do better.”

Meg St-Esprit is a freelance journalist based in Bellevue. She can be reached at megstesprit@gmail.com or on Twitter @megstesprit.

The post Is it Critical Race Theory? Pittsburgh-area parents grapple with conversations about race in education. appeared first on PublicSource. PublicSource is a nonprofit news organization serving the Pittsburgh region. Visit www.publicsource.org to read more.

Leah: Being a mom can be very challenging. Balancing work, homeschooling, running a house and the never-ending task of house training our dog definitely gets the best of me at times. So naturally, after a long day of meltdowns, cleaning up dog poop, answering the same questions over and over all day long, I enjoy a mindless social media scroll at night in my free time. On Facebook, I often seek out mom groups I feel could be a great support for whatever life tragedy may have happened during the day. Child got his head stuck in the monkey bars at the park? There’s a mom group for that! Mall meltdown earlier in the day still got you feeling like crap? There’s a mom group for that!

Many times, these mom groups are like a breath of fresh air. The support, advice and the resources are usually just what I need. After joining a new group and observing for a bit, I usually feel like: “Ahhh!! I have found my people!”

Then, it happens. The judgment, the mom shaming, the entitlement, privilege and… dare I say it? The racism. Yes, it is true, in moms groups centered around disabilities, recipe ideas and even arts and crafts, it happens. Sometimes it’s passive aggressive. “Oh, we prefer to shop in the suburbs.” Or the, “I would never send my child to a city public school because the kids there are so rough.”

Other times it’s straight in your face. All city neighborhoods are ghetto and filled with drug addicts and thugs. I’ve experienced both types. Initially, I was blown away. I would just clutch my invisible pearls and keep scrolling. Eventually, holding my tongue was no longer an option. Against my better judgment I began to engage. Most of the time, I left the conversations frustrated and baffled. It perplexed me that, as a woman of color, my truth and experiences were often dismissed. I remember one time a white mom actually proceeded to tell me how Black people feel. Did she somehow have the inside track to Black feelings that I wasn’t aware of?

Local journalist and mom Meg St-Esprit and I have been navigating these online spaces with varying degrees of success — she from the perspective of a white woman, and me from the perspective of a Black woman. Here, she shares a bit about what she has seen.

Meg: I remember as a new mom with my oldest, who is almost 10 now, I was added to a Facebook group that branched off of the in-person Storkbites meetups through Heritage Valley Sewickley. The Tribune-Review even covered the e-village, way back then. As the number of kids grew in our family, and our dynamics changed, more and more groups were added to my world. There is a Facebook group for everything. I am in so many that cover a wide variety of topics: things found hidden in walls, bearded dragons, adoption, refinishing floors, finding Aldi sales, writing, cloth diapering, you name it. Sometimes, those groups implode. Losing an online community can be heartbreaking, and I wrote about that once for Romper. Sometimes it happens for reasons out of our control. Sometimes, like the loss I described in that piece, I messed up, but lines are more easily drawn than in real life, and many parents feel the loss of online support systems viscerally.

When we moved to Bellevue in 2014, I did not know a soul. With another mom, we started a local Facebook group for the area that grew quickly to be a pretty active space. I began to start being invited to be an admin in other groups too. At one point, I was an admin for over 20 groups, which was overwhelming at times. Issues cropped up at all hours of the night, and I would often wake up to 20 or 30 angry messages about a problem I had missed. Often the issue was legitimate, and I felt terrible about my inability to address it.

As Leah and I talk about in this piece, racism and microaggressions are rampant in online spaces. Sometimes the issues were not legitimate. Ask yourself if sending 20 messages at 2 a.m. over sidewalk chalk art is necessary.

This spring, in the wake of dealing with the long-haul COVID-19 recovery process, I stepped down from my admin role in nearly all of the groups. I still remain a member, and while they are often still very useful, as an observer, I have become more aware of the harmful dynamics of the groups for marginalized and members who are Black, Indigenous, People of Color [BIPOC].

Like a firefighter in the fray,  when I was an admin, I think I became overwhelmed with everything going on around me and often missed the key issue — especially when it hurt our most vulnerable members. Now, as the neighbor standing on the sidewalk watching where the flames shoot out of the burning house, I have a wider perspective that is helping me grow and showing me how much I was missing.

I still think Facebook groups are useful. But they are also a microcosm of how much we have to do as a society to become more understanding, actively antiracist and more empathetic, myself included. Leah and I spoke to some members and administrators in these groups to hear just what they had to say about the tensions, implicit bias and racism.

Two of those groups are Pittsburgh Moms Connect, which has 18,000 members, and New Mom’s Coffee, which was hosted and recently disbanded by KidsPlus Pediatrics. BIPOC mothers and white allies in both groups have expressed deep concern over how the dominating white suburban voices silence the voices of traditionally marginalized members.

Tiara Emery and Tanisha Bowman were both members of New Mom’s Coffee and found value in the group as parents of young children. Bowman, a palliative care social worker, joined the online space just as her daughter was born at the start of the pandemic. Lacking the ability to connect in real life with other moms, she jumped into the new space earnestly. Bowman immediately noticed the racial tension. “Little racial tiffs kept popping up, references to things that happened in the past, and I thought: Ugh, here we go…” She had seen similar tiffs in other groups where white women would bristle over having to be racially sensitive, as if it were an added burden they did not want to shoulder. “The general group was meant to be a safe space for women who were coming to it in the middle of the night in tears because they didn’t understand why their baby wasn’t taking a boob, right? Why make them also reckon with their issues with race?”

Emery had similar experiences in New Mom’s Coffee and a spinoff group called Unites, which was created with the purpose of doing antiracism work. That wasn’t what Emery saw, though. “It was primarily white women talking to white women without any people of color commenting.

The voices of women of color were often dismissed or labeled as angry. The women of color would be labeled as aggressive and attacking white women when they voiced their feelings on their lived experiences. Very common.”

Despite the online conflicts, Emery recalls initially being excited to meet up with women from the New Mom’s Coffee group in person — women who shared her parenting joys and struggles. Her excitement was short lived though, as these events are often very cliquey. As a woman of color, navigating these spaces causes a great deal of anxiety for Emery. “You aren’t totally sure if you are really welcome.” She was met by a sea of white faces and cold shoulders. One lady made a point to tell her there were “Black meetups and Black breastfeeding things that she could go to.”

Emery felt unwelcome. There were comments made about her baby’s car seat cover being inappropriate and unsafe. She was not the only mom with that particular cover, just the only one singled out.  She felt like her contributions to group conversations were dismissed. She left in tears. With her baby in the backseat, she called both her husband and sister. They each comforted and encouraged her to try to participate again. This was her second child, and she was hopeful to experience the same community and friendship with New Mom’s Coffee that others had raved about.

Two weeks passed and Emery returned. The same woman repeated the comments from the first time. She encouraged Emery to seek out Black breastfeeding groups and meetups. After that encounter, she knew she would not be returning to in-person meetups. When Emery and others shared their experience with the group, her comments prompted the admins to remove her from the main New Mom’s Coffee group.

KidsPlus Pediatrics disbanded the main group this spring, though many spinoff groups exist unofficially. A Facebook post said the group was ending due to the main admin retiring. PublicSource reached out to both KPP and Unites, but they didn’t respond.

In Pittsburgh Moms Connect, the city’s largest parenting group, admins often have a hard time keeping up with posts that “blow up.”

Natasha Vasquez Lee, an admin and a woman of color, said managing a busy group of such considerable size is a big job, especially since admins are all volunteers with jobs and kids themselves. “It does not sit well with us that brown mamas don’t feel as welcome or safe,” she said. “We delete any blatantly racist comments that we see and block those posters; otherwise, we generally monitor potentially tricky posts and step in as needed.” The admin team still struggles with how to address the implicit bias behind many posts and comments.

She described a recent post about a white woman who was seeking a salon to give her cornrows, and the ensuing fast-paced conversation about cultural appropriation that followed. Many BIPOC women and white allies attempted to educate others, but much of their words were received with hostility. “I think some of our members do an admirable job of attempting to educate and ’call in,’ but not everyone is at a place where they’re willing to learn, and then the conversation gets off the rails,” she said.

“As admins, we think it is important to allow space for hard conversations that quite frankly might not happen elsewhere, and we hope that some members will benefit and learn from these honest discussions.”

She said that they can’t force someone to learn, though, and often end with shutting off comments on a post when things become heated. As a woman of color in a multiracial family, it wears on Vasquez Lee too. “We’re no strangers to prejudice, and it doesn’t surprise me to see the comments being made in the moms group, but it is still disheartening and, frankly, exhausting. How do you get someone to begin to value another person and her situation when they refuse to even see her?”

Kristie Lindblom, a North Hills mom of two teens, has been a part of local Pittsburgh parenting groups since they existed as Yahoo listservs. She is a member of Pittsburgh Moms Connect. She remembers her own learning curve, and the women who took the time to show her where she needed to grow. “I was part of the problem. I was unaware of my own privilege. I really value when women of color are willing to come into the spaces and educate.” Lindblom credits local Black activists for taking the time to teach white allies, even though they didn’t need to. “That’s not incumbent upon women of color. They were asking white allies to come take care of our people. That was a wake up call for me.  I am very grateful for the labor they put in that they did not have to.”

Lindblom works in mental health. She has been able to apply some of these strategies to the group interactions, as well. Here is some advice she offers to other white parents in these spaces who want to be antiracist:

Highlight the experience of the person who is impacted. “This is their experience. You need to understand, and if you are not taking that time to understand, you need to figure out why. Why can’t you listen to this person’s experience?” Lindblom and her fellow white women have been conditioned, she says, to see themselves as empathetic listeners but often balk when their worldview is challenged. She shared a couple of tips for white moms:

• Encourage white parents  to think about what they are saying. “The teacher in me likes to use inquiry to poke holes in their logic. ‘Am I hearing you right that you think XYX?’ And then they have to stop and reflect. Is that really what they mean?”
• Know when enough is enough. There are times when the racism and aggression has gone too far, and white allies need to step in and be direct to protect marginalized members. “If you’ve had ten women of color and a bunch of white allies tell you that you’re wrong, and you’re still doubling down, you’re done.”

Meg: Lindblom told me she told me she has continually made mistakes as she learns to become actively antiracist. She knows she is always a work in progress. She urges her fellow Pittsburgh white women to do the same. “I appreciate when people call me on my blind spots, so I can model how to get called out too,” she said. “Even if I double down, I can come back later and say I was wrong and I need to do better next time.” The most important thing is to keep trying and set defensiveness aside when someone with a different life experience shares how we’ve hurt them. The process of unlearning the harmful and racist attitudes we were raised with is not a path taken without stumbles. Get back up, and keep going.

Leah: Throughout the years I’ve had to pick and choose my battles and what topics I decide to engage in wisely. I’ve met many women of color who have also experienced racism in mom’s Facebook groups. We’ve been very intentional about creating safe spaces for us as well as protecting our mental space. The racism in these groups, whether passive aggressive or full out in your face, begins to take a toll on you. With the climate of today’s world, allowing strangers behind a keyboard to live rent free in my head is no longer an option.

Update (9/17/2021): This story was updated to clarify that Tiara Emery was removed from the main New Mom’s Coffee group.

Leah Walker lives in Westmoreland County and is a homeschooling mother of four school-aged children and an adult child. She is a speaker and educator and can be reached at lwalker3106@comcast.net. 

Meg St-Esprit is a freelance journalist based in Bellevue. She can be reached at megstesprit@gmail.com or on Twitter @megstesprit.

The post Navigating the tension-filled world of motherhood in Pittsburgh’s Facebook groups appeared first on PublicSource. PublicSource is a nonprofit news organization serving the Pittsburgh region. Visit www.publicsource.org to read more.

With the recent emergency use authorization of the Pfizer vaccine for kids 12 and up and trials underway for kids as young as 2, it’s no surprise that the choice about whether to vaccinate or not is topping the minds of parents across the Pittsburgh area.

Kids, though, are thinking about the vaccine as well. Perhaps no group has been more greatly affected by the pandemic than children, whose entire worlds were upended in an instant and understanding why was more difficult. Now, for those adolescents who are newly eligible or soon to be eligible for vaccination, some are processing their feelings about what being protected from the virus may mean for them. We were able to (virtually) chat with them about this new shift in the COVID-19 saga.

Andrew Pohland, 11, Greensburg

Andrew will turn 12 this fall, so whether or not the vaccine is approved for younger kids soon, he will quickly be eligible. His mom describes him as an empathetic kid who thinks a lot about the effects of the pandemic on his community.

The rising sixth grader talked about how sad it made him to think of people who died and didn’t get to say goodbye to their loved ones. “But the bright side is the vaccine’s coming, and we will get a chance, and that everybody who will hopefully be vaccinated will help the pandemic, like, be under control. It’s like we are putting it into a bag and closing it.

“…I really want the vaccine, but I just don’t know what the side effects are because whenever my mom got the second vaccine, she was a little drowsy so I don’t know how  it will affect a kid’s body and I don’t really want anything bad to happen to anybody, so I will wait ’til I am 12 and then I will be able to do it.”

When his mom reminded him that the vaccine might be approved for younger kids before he turns 12 this fall, he was unsure that he would get it right away. “Well, the thing that I am worried about is that whenever people are 12, they can get it and their bodies are bigger, but kids that are 5? Even adults sometimes have side effects. For a kid that’s 5, that might cause an issue.” He noted that his mom’s side effects lasted only about a day, but he was really worried about her. “It still really freaked me out.”

Natalie Shaffer, 14, Russellton (West Deer)

Natalie lives with her parents and two siblings, 12-year-old Anna and 8-year-old James. Her dad is a microbiologist who has done some in-depth research about how the vaccine works, so her parents did not have many reservations about their two oldest children receiving the shot as soon as they were eligible. Her mom, Crystal, said, “Was I concerned? Maybe a little, but not as much as I am concerned about COVID or the unknown after-effects of it.”

Natalie talked with PublicSource on the eve of her first vaccine dose and again a few days later. She was anxious but excited. “I feel nervous to actually get the shot because I don’t like shots, but also excited maybe … Because like, once you get it, you still have to be cautious and take precautions, but you don’t have to worry as much with the vaccine than with not.”

She has some concern about the seemingly new science and did research on her own before deciding to go through with it. “I guess I was a little tiny bit concerned about getting it, just because of, like, long-term side effects or something, but I don’t know, millions of people have gotten it.” She talked to her parents; they both said they thought it was a good idea. Natalie looked particularly into deaths reported by people after they had received the vaccine (though not necessarily caused by the vaccine). “I wasn’t too worried about it, just really slightly.” She asked her friends, but they all said that they weren’t sure.

Natalie has loved ones in her life who are also minors who want the vaccine, but their parents are not willing to give them permission. She also has two friends that received their first dose last week. “There wasn’t a wave of people. I know a lot of them, their parents are hesitant and don’t really want them to get it, so then they aren’t really allowed I guess.” There has been a great deal of chatter around the school about people’s different decisions surrounding the vaccine, but Natalie said it hasn’t been tense. Her friends are just thinking about all the information.

The biggest struggle for Natalie the past year has been the inconsistent nature of school — the constant switch from in-person learning to remote has been really difficult. If more people get the vaccine then school would be more consistent. “That would be really nice.” Her biggest hope is for a somewhat normal summer. “This summer we are going on vacation … I’m just happy that by then we will be good, the vaccine will be, you know, like fully kicked in I guess, so, like, we won’t have to worry as much about spreading COVID or getting it ourselves.”

As for unmasking once she gets her second shot? She isn’t sure. “I think it just depends who we are around and stuff like that. If they are also vaccinated, then I don’t think it’s as big a deal. But if I am around people who aren’t, I don’t know what the chances are if you are vaccinated giving it to somebody, but I wouldn’t want to give it to anybody. So if they are not vaccinated, then I might still wear a mask.”

Kayley and Timmy Wu, 5 and 4, Bellevue

Betty and Victor Wu have talked to their two kids, Kayley and Timmy, about the vaccine. All of the adults in their lives, from parents to grandparents to babysitters, have been vaccinated, and the kids talk often about when it is their turn. The Wus check weekly for new information about kids and the vaccine by googling the topic and looking for sources they trust. They have zero hesitation about their kids getting the shot. “I trust the scientists,” Betty shares. “They will get the first available spot we can.”

Kayley knows to prepare for side effects. “I will feel happy, but my arm will feel ill. So I have to have nothing, that has to be my day off. And I have to not even move my single arm.” She shares that soon it will be her birthday and she hopes she can get her vaccine on that day as a present. While kids her age won’t likely be approved in the next few weeks, her excitement is contagious. “Then I could drink tea parties without a mask, so then like we could drink real tea, even put some bubble tea in my teacups.” When asked if she has any worries about getting the vaccine, Kayley responds with a shout, “No! I am worried that people will have the virus still!”

She goes on to explain how babies won’t be able to get the vaccine, including her young cousin, and babies don’t wear masks. Her anxiety about contracting the virus is more concerning to her than the pain of a shot, according to her mom. Kayley has been very worried about people falling ill. “I don’t like it, and because I don’t like it, is people get sick and they die from COVID-19. And that’s what I don’t like. I want people to stay alive until they’re old, very old like grandma and grandpa.”

When her younger brother is asked about his turn to get the shot, he bounces in his seat. How does he feel? “Excited! Because I can’t wait to go everywhere because I had the vaccine.” He rolls out a plan of visiting new places in between quick stops at home just to sleep. He is worried about getting the shot because it hurts and plans to still wear his mask just in case. When asked if he feels safe right now, he shares that he doesn’t yet. “Because kids can’t get the vaccine, and mommy and daddy already had the vaccine.”

Liam Parkes, 11, Sewickley

Liam lives with his mom, stepdad and stepsister in Sewickley. He attends Quaker Valley School District, which has been largely in person since September. While there have been challenges the last year between remote schooling, hybrid school and worries about those around him, Liam thinks he has mostly been able to roll with the changes of the pandemic. “I mean, the coronavirus was kind of easy for me to adapt to, and yeah I guess I just got to play video games all the time.” Like many kids during this season, he was able to connect and be free in online worlds when the real world was shut down. His mom, Adrienne, laughs, and asks if he did anything else for the last year. “Did you read any books?”

He smirks. “I did read books.” He also did some Legos, “but mostly video games.” When asked if he has any concerns or qualms about getting the vaccine, he has none. “I feel good about getting vaccinated soon, and that’s kinda … that.” He is ready for a return to a more normal life.

His mom is more worried about him getting the shot than he is. Not because of the science behind it, though, but because of his previous vaccine anxiety. “He hates shots and screams like he is being boiled alive every time.” Liam is asthmatic, and so she has much more anxiety about him getting the virus than about getting the vaccine. “If they could just come out with a gummy version of the vaccine, that would be great.”

As for her own feelings as a Black woman given the racist history of medical experimentation and healthcare inequity in the United States, Adrienne still felt confident when she got her shot. “I trusted my doctor to give me her best recommendation for me, knowing my health history, medications, etc.” She did have some concern about her immune response following the dose because she had a previous COVID-19 infection, but thankfully she had a standard reaction following her vaccination.

Where should parents look when they make these decisions?

In a world bombarded with information from all sides, it can be tough for parents to know exactly where to seek guidance if they are hesitant about the vaccine. Dr. Glenn Rapsinski is a pediatric infectious disease fellow at Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh and has been having these exact conversations with many parents. In general, he has seen families fall into three camps:

• There are those families who are vaccine hesitant in general and do not immunize their children against anything.
• There are families who are excited to vaccinate themselves and their children against COVID-19, and while they might have a few questions, they are not hesitant about these new vaccines.
• There are also some families that generally administer most vaccines, but avoid the flu shot. Those families seem to also be more cautious about the COVID-19 vaccination.

Rapsinski is concerned about misinformation circulating, particularly about the speed with which the vaccines were developed. “The perception has been that the COVID vaccines have been rushed, but the reality is that they haven’t been,” he said. “The mRNA technology used has been in development for years and all of the standard safety and efficacy protocols have been followed for the trials. A new virus was a good opportunity for this technology because it only requires the genetic code.”

Rapsinski urges parents to seek quality sources and points to the websites of the American Academy of Pediatrics and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as reliable portals to find information. First and foremost, he encourages parents to ask their doctors. “There’s a misconception that we don’t have time to answer your questions, but we do actually want to take that time. Just ask us.”

On a personal note, the doctor shared he has two nieces and two nephews and has no qualms about his young loved ones being vaccinated. “Absolutely, if my brothers and sisters-in-law or my sister and brother-in-law would ask me if I recommend the vaccine, I would recommend it without hesitation.”

Meg St-Esprit is a freelance journalist based in Bellevue. She can be reached at megstesprit@gmail.com or on Twitter @megstesprit.

The post Kids in the Pittsburgh region balance benefits and risks of the COVID vaccine appeared first on PublicSource. PublicSource is a nonprofit news organization serving the Pittsburgh region. Visit www.publicsource.org to read more.