Author

Anna Claire Vollers
Anna Claire Vollers covers health care for Stateline. She is based in Huntsville, Alabama.
Abortion opponents push state lawmakers to promote unproven ‘abortion reversal’
By: Anna Claire Vollers - November 30, 2023
Read more Stateline coverage on how states are either protecting or curbing access to abortions. Anti-abortion organizations are pushing state lawmakers to promote a controversial and unproven “abortion reversal” treatment — flouting the objections of medical professionals who point out it is not supported by science. In the past several years, Republican lawmakers in […]
Faith-based maternity homes ‘create a haven’ in states with strict abortion laws
By: Anna Claire Vollers - October 4, 2023
CHILTON COUNTY, Ala. — At the end of a gravel road that runs through a wooded property in Chilton County, Alabama, a plain white two-story house sits overlooking a small pond. Outside the house, everything is tranquil: The swings on the new playground nearby are quiet, the pond is still, the rocking chairs lined up […]
As child poverty doubles, states launch or expand their own tax credits
By: Anna Claire Vollers - September 25, 2023
The federal pandemic-era child tax credit expansion lifted millions of children out of poverty in the second half of 2021. But Congress allowed it to expire at the end of that year, and new U.S. census data shows the child poverty rate more than doubled in 2022, erasing the record gains that were made. “It […]
Hospitals block much-needed birth centers in the South
By: Anna Claire Vollers - August 14, 2023
When Katie Chubb announced in 2021 she was planning to open a freestanding birth center in Augusta, Georgia, it seemed like everybody in town was excited about it. She met with local physicians and nurses who said they would welcome her Augusta Birth Center as a provider of midwifery services for low-risk pregnancies. Hundreds of […]
Laws banning gender-affirming treatments can block trans youth from receiving other care
By: Anna Claire Vollers - July 31, 2023
In some states, new laws banning gender-affirming care for transgender youth are dissuading health care providers from offering mental health services and other medical care that isn’t explicitly banned by those laws. In the first few weeks after Mississippi’s law went into effect in February, nurse practitioner Stacie Pace said she was fielding calls and […]