Author

Sarah Ladd

Sarah Ladd

Sarah Ladd is a Louisville-based journalist from West Kentucky who's covered everything from crime to higher education. She spent nearly two years on the metro breaking news desk at The Courier Journal. In 2020, she started reporting on the COVID-19 pandemic and has covered health ever since. As the Kentucky Lantern's health reporter, she focuses on mental health, LGBTQ+ issues, children's welfare, COVID-19 and more.

Kentucky Lantern is part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization.

With a new mental health emergency unit, University of Kentucky seeks to decrease stigma

By: - August 12, 2024

This story mentions suicide and mental health. If you or someone you know is contemplating suicide, please call or text the Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 988.? Kentucky’s first psychiatric emergency unit cared for more than 150 people in its first 10 days of operation — more than half of whom were dealing with suicidality. The […]

Breaking the Stigma: Postpartum depression is lonely. Shame, guilt make it worse.?

By: - August 12, 2024

This story discusses postpartum depression and suicide. If you or someone you know is contemplating suicide, please call or text the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 988.? Before having children, Chan Kemper pictured how the experience would go.? “I was determined to have the hippiest, dippiest, crunchy, earth goddess pregnancies and deliveries that I could […]

A Kentucky Lantern Q & A with federal health administrator?

By: - August 9, 2024

LOUISVILLE — Carole Johnson, the administrator of the Health Resources and Services Administration for the Biden administration, was in Louisville Thursday to discuss ways Kentucky can improve maternal health outcomes.? After moderating a roundtable on the topic, Johnson discussed maternal health issues facing Kentucky with the Lantern. The conversation has been edited for length and […]

Roundtable explores ways to improve Kentucky maternal health

By: - August 8, 2024

LOUISVILLE — Maternal health is complicated, and reducing mortality around birth takes a comprehensive approach, advocates from across Kentucky said at a Thursday roundtable moderated by Carole Johnson, the administrator of the Health Resources and Services Administration for the Biden administration. During the roundtable, which took place at the Marriott Hotel in downtown Louisville, Johnson […]

COVID-19 on the rise in Kentucky

By: - August 6, 2024

LOUISVILLE — COVID-19 is “alive and well” in Kentucky, cautions infectious disease expert Dr. Mark Burns, as hospitalizations for the virus rise and students and teachers head back to school. Kentucky’s Cabinet for Health and Family Services data shows an uptick in emergency department visits and hospitalizations from COVID-19 as of Aug. 1.? In July […]

KY abortion rights advocates mark milestone, lament state’s barrier to ballot initiatives

By: - August 1, 2024

Kentucky Reproductive Freedom Fund members, who in June announced a pro-abortion access messaging campaign, gathered at the Warren County Courthouse in Bowling Green Thursday to say their campaign has reached 1.8 million people through digital ads.? Ona Marshall, who founded KRFF and co-owned one of Kentucky’s last two abortion clinics, also criticized Kentucky’s lack of […]

Kentucky lawmakers hear about efforts to resolve dispute over access to abuse, neglect records

By: - July 30, 2024

FRANKFORT — Kentucky’s Cabinet for Health and Family Services and the state auditor’s office said Tuesday they are open to entering a memorandum of understanding to ensure the office of the ombudsman has the access it needs to a computer system that stores information about abuse and neglect cases.? The two parties are still hashing […]

Republicans slam administration for not carrying out laws that Beshear says legislature didn’t fund

By: - July 30, 2024

FRANKFORT — Kentucky Republican lawmakers slammed the Beshear administration Tuesday for “picking and choosing” what laws to implement amid funding disputes that threaten 2024 laws to help kinship care families and create a statewide child abuse reporting system.? Eric Friedlander, the secretary of the Cabinet for Health and Family Services, repeatedly told lawmakers during the […]

Kentucky judge dismisses constitutional challenge to anti-vaping law?

By: - July 29, 2024

Franklin Circuit Court Judge Thomas Wingate has dismissed a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of a 2024 law banning the sale of some vaping products.? In doing so, Wingate sided with the lawsuit’s defendants — Allyson Taylor, commissioner of the Kentucky Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control, and Secretary of State Michael Adams — who filed a […]

‘Between rock, hard place:’ Will anyone ever have standing to challenge Kentucky’s abortion ban?

By: - July 29, 2024

LOUISVILLE — Lisa Sobel thinks any Kentuckian who has a uterus should have standing to challenge the state’s abortion ban.? The Kentucky Supreme Court and, more recently, a judge in Louisville, disagree.? Meanwhile, Sobel, one of three Jewish women challenging the ban on religious grounds, says she’s left in a “holding pattern.” She is afraid […]

Fired University of Louisville professor claiming free-speech violation argues for jury trial

By: - July 23, 2024

The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is considering whether a case involving former University of Louisville professor Dr. Allan M. Josephson’s comments about how to treat gender dysphoria should go to a jury trial.? Judges heard oral arguments Tuesday morning, the latest in a roughly five-year legal battle to reinstate Josephson as chief of […]

Kim Davis’ legal counsel moves to make her appeal a springboard for overturning marriage rights

By: - July 23, 2024

A conservative legal group has filed a brief on behalf of a former Kentucky county clerk that it says could lead to the U.S. Supreme Court overturning the right of same-sex couples to marry. Kim Davis, then the Rowan County clerk, made national headlines in 2015 for refusing to issue marriage licenses to several same-sex […]