ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-SEVEN YEARS OF EDITORIAL FREEDOM
Wednesday, October 11, 2017
Ann Arbor, Michigan
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On Edge
Michigan in Color and The Statement look at how students of color combat campus apathy.
m i ch ig a n in co l o r x th e s t ate m e nt
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CAMPUS LIFE
Health Insurance In Michigan
1,692,500
2013 2,168,900 in 2016
Michigan residents were on Medicaid in
&
The uninsured rate in
2013: 11%
The uninsured rate in
456,000
2016: 6%
9,100
currently enrolled through individual marketplace
Deputy ACLU legal director and professor contextualize, distinguish kinds of speech
to lose coverage when Health Alliance Plan leaves the market at the end of the year
KATHERINA SOURINE Daily Staff Reporter
Source: Kaiser Family Foundation DESIGN BY MICHELLE PHILLIPS
ACA leads to drop in MI uninsured
Since gaining full control of the White House, Senate and House, GOP has attempted repeal ANDREW HIYAMA Daily News Reporter
Since the Affordable Care Act was signed into law by President Barack Obama in March 2010, Republicans have made its repeal a central piece of their party platform. Since gaining full control of the
White House, the Senate and the House of Representatives, various Republicans have made multiple attempts at repeal, falling just a few Senate votes short each time. But that hasn’t stopped President Donald Trump from utilizing the full capabilities of the executive branch to dismantle the program and undermine its effectiveness.
His administration has cut the open enrollment period for the individual marketplace in half (and during said period shuts down the healthcare. gov website for 12 hours every Sunday), indicated the IRS will not enforce the individual mandate penalty for people eligible to enroll in the marketplace, drastically cut funding for navigator groups
Panel talks ‘U’ protests, free speech and hate speech
helping people enroll and declined to guarantee cost-sharing reduction payments to insurance companies, among other things. The effect of all this is particularly notable in Michigan, a state that has enjoyed relative success in health insurance coverage under the ACA. From 2009 to 2011, the uninsured See OBAMACARE, Page 3A
The growing necessity to distinguish free speech from hate speech, especially in context of life at the University of Michigan, was the central topic of disccusion at a panel held Tuesday at the University Law School. The panel related this topic in relation to recent events on and outside campus as well as the upcoming visit of controversial figure Charles Murray this Wednesday. The event was co-sponsored by the Law School and the Ford School of Public Policy. Dan Korobkin, deputy legal director of ACLU Michigan, drew much of his talk from his own work at the ACLU, where he litigates civil liberties issues like free speech. Korobkin cited the
First Amendment as a protection to protest an administration, but also highlighted its recent use in protecting the expression of hateful ideologies. Korobkin claimed the legal protection of what we know as hate speech and protesting is one of the most difficult parts of his job, especially when students later related this to the Charlottesville, Va., protests in which an estimated 80 percent were armed with weaponry. “They key to me is that the First Amendment actually includes the word ‘peaceably’ in it, which implies to me that if you are planning to have a march for political reasons, but also bring your guns and do it in a way that is designed to intimidate counterprotesters … that’s not what the First Amendment protects,” he See PANEL, Page 3A
Trump administration rolls back Exhibition University eulogizes birth control coverage requirement launches
CAMPUS LIFE
suicide with backpacks
Display set up on the Diag represents 1,100 student suicide victims each year NICOLE TSUNO
Daily Staff Reporter
According to Send Silence Packing — a campaign designed to raise awareness of student suicide and to connect students to mental health resources on university campuses — one of every two college students thinks about attempting suicide at some point. Tuesday, the Diag was covered by backpacks — each of them representing one of the 1,100 college students who take their own life every year. LSA junior Summer LaPointe said this number surprised her. “The number is lower than I thought, but I’m not exactly sure why,” she said. “As someone who struggles with suicidal ideation even still, I think it really impresses me that so many of us are able to continue living and not die, and it also makes me sad that as many as 1,100 have killed themselves and it doesn’t seem like ‘that much.’ ” These backpacks were part of a travelling exhibition called Send Silence Packing. This campaign has been a See BACKPACKS, Page 3A
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ADMINISTRATION
White House officials cite the protection of religious and moral freedoms as motives CARLY RYAN
Daily Staff Reporter
After an unsuccessful attempt at repealing the entire Affordable Care Act, President Donald Trump’s administration repealed a mandate that required employers to provide free birth control coverage, which currently gives more than 55 million women access to birth control. These stipulations will allow a wide range of employers to deny birth control coverage, including those with “moral convictions” against the drug. Because of this, it is estimated hundreds of thousands of women will no longer be able to afford their birth control, which was free of cost under the Affordable Care Act. “Congress has a consistent history of supporting conscience protections for moral convictions alongside protections for religious beliefs,” the administration said in a statement. The mandate expands exemptions from only religious institutions to all organizations, including hospitals and universities. According to The New York Times, Trump said these mandates will prevent employers from being “bullied by the federal government because of their religious beliefs” and prevent “risky sexual behavior” among adolescents. However, LSA sophomore Helena Harmon, executive board member of the FemDems
committee of the University of Michigan’s chapter of College Democrats, said the argument that the mandates will protect freedom of religion is thinly veiled considering the vagueness of “moral convictions” allows for anyone to decline birth control coverage. “It’s totally a guise and a political move to appeal to further right groups,” she said. “I think it just shows that controlling womens’ bodies has become a political issue.” However, some pro-life students think since some birth control methods like abortifacients prevent an embryo from attaching to the uterine wall, no tax dollars should be going towards them. Nicole Hocott,
LSA sophomore and president of Students for Life, said because the mandate affects abortifacients, she is glad her tax dollars don’t have to go toward them. “If Planned Parenthood is technically not allowed to use tax dollars to fund abortion, then neither should our tax dollars be used for that which is essentially an abortion,” Hocott said. “In terms of other birth control that are not abortifacients and just block fertilization or ovulation, I am not completely sure on my stance, but I do know that I understand why someone would not want their money going toward something they see as so wrong, as this has to do with life and death, families and culture.” The breadth of the mandate,
New Birth Control Regulations Birth Control is Rad
which allows universities to decline coverage, also concerned some students. However, Women’s Studies professor Joanne Bailey said University employees likely do not need to worry about losing their coverage based on these provisions. “Generally religious universities like Notre Dame and other traditionally Catholic universities that would be opposed to birth control would be in the category of those who would be affected by this,” Bailey said. Harmon agreed University students and employees likely won’t be affected, and furthermore said women in our generation are privileged to See BIRTH CONTROL, Page 3A
The Agency calculated at most
120,000
women would be affected.
9 out of 10 women
Health and Human Service Officials said that the new rule would have no
of reproductive age will use birth control in their lifetime
For more stories and coverage, visit
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impact on 99.9% of Women in the United States
Roughly 200 entities have been involved in 50 or more lawsuits over birth control
DESIGN BY OLIVIA STILLMAN
INDEX
Vol. CXXVII, No. 8 ©2017 The Michigan Daily
bias report log online
Incidents listed on the site go back as far as July; includes written, verbal KAELA THEUT
Daily Staff Reporter
The University of Michigan launched an onlinebias response log this week amid student requests for more administrative transparency regarding bias incidents. The log details all bias incidents reported to, and actions taken by, the Bias Response team since July 1. The Bias Response Team, part of the larger Division of Student Life, works to maintain an inclusive campus environment for all students and support those who may have been impacted by such bias incidents. As noted in the log, the team of professional staff members also refers victims to appropriate University resources as needed. In a statement provided by the Office of Public Affairs, Nicole Banks, assistant dean of students, emphasized the level of professionalism possessed by those on the Bias Response Team. “This team of skilled professionals represent many aspects of the University community and work to coordinate a comprehensive response to each individual incident,” Banks said. See LOG, Page 3A
NEWS.........................2 OPINION.....................4 ARTS......................6
SUDOKU.....................2 CROSSWORD...............6 SPORTS..................7