Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
4 In 5 Maternal Deaths In 2017-19 Were Preventable, Analysis Finds
USA Today: CDC Analysis Shows More Than 80% Of US Maternal Deaths Are Preventable
A staggering number of maternal deaths in the United States were found to be preventable, according to a federal analysis of maternal death data released Monday. More than 80%, or roughly 4 in 5 maternal deaths in a two-year period, were due to preventable causes, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report found. (Hassanein, 9/19)
In updates on the fight for abortion rights —
Reuters: Planned Parenthood, Others Urge Indiana Judge To Block Abortion Ban
A Planned Parenthood affiliate and other abortion rights groups and providers on Monday urged an Indiana judge to block the state's ban on most abortions, which took effect last Thursday. Kenneth Falk, a lawyer with the American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana, told Judge Kelsey Hanlon in Indianapolis that the ban ran afoul of privacy and liberty rights Falk said were guaranteed by the state's constitution. The ACLU sued to challenge the law alongside Planned Parenthood Great Northwest, Hawai'i, Alaska, Indiana, Kentucky and others. (Pierson, 9/19)
Detroit Free Press: Michigan Pharmacists Can Prescribe Birth Control Pills, Patch, Ring
Soon, getting hormonal birth control in Michigan may be as simple as stopping in at your neighborhood pharmacy. That’s because the state Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs on Monday issued a new interpretation of the Michigan Public Health Code that opens up the ability of doctors to partner with pharmacists to directly dispense hormonal birth control. (Jordan Shamus, 9/19)
The Boston Globe: On Abortion, NH Republican Senate Challenger Has A Message: ‘Get Over It’
On one level, the New Hampshire Republican Senate candidate was merely saying out loud what many political strategists have been urging GOP candidates to do: Stop talking about abortion and focus on the economy. But in a weekend interview, Don Bolduc, the tough-talking retired brigadier general, directed that advice to his opponent, Democratic US Senator Maggie Hassan, criticizing her focus on the overturned constitutional right to abortion. “Get over it,” Bolduc said on WMUR CloseUp. (Ebbert, 9/19)
AP: Ad Spending Shows Dems Hinging Midterm Hopes On Abortion
Democrats are pumping an unprecedented amount of money into advertising related to abortion rights, underscoring how central the message is to the party in the final weeks before the November midterm elections. With the most intense period of campaigning only just beginning, Democrats have already invested more than an estimated $124 million this year in television advertising referencing abortion. That’s more than twice as much money as the Democrats’ next top issue this year, “character,” and almost 20 times more than Democrats spent on abortion-related ads in the 2018 midterms. (Peoples and Kessler, 9/20)
Also —
AP: They Ended Wanted Pregnancies. Post-Roe, They Face New Pain.
Ashley Lefebvre hugs her unborn daughter’s urn each night. Sarah Halsey treasures the tiny hat worn by her baby who lived just 38 minutes. Abi Frazier moved away from her home with a furnished nursery. All ended wanted pregnancies because of grave fetal medical problems. It’s a side of abortion seldom discussed in national debates — the termination of pregnancies because of fetal anomalies or other often-fatal medical problems. These terminations often happen in the second trimester, when women have already picked out names, bought baby clothes and felt kicking in their wombs. They’re far different from the most common abortions, performed earlier in pregnancies. (Ungar, 9/18)
The Texas Tribune: How Texas’ Abortion Laws Turned A Heartbreaking Fetal Diagnosis Into A Cross-Country Journey
The protesters outside the Seattle abortion clinic waved pictures of bloody fetuses, shouting that she was a “baby killer” and begging her to choose life. Lauren Hall, 27, fought the urge to scream back and tell them just how badly she wished life was a choice she could have made. (Klibanoff, 9/20)
KHN: Texas, Battling Teen Pregnancy, Recasts Sex Education Standards
J.R. Chester got pregnant the summer before her senior year of high school. A bright student with good grades, she gave birth, graduated, and was pregnant again when she arrived at college that fall. She was a teen mom — like her mother, her grandmother, and her great-grandmother. Her school did not teach sexual health education, and preventing pregnancy was a foreign concept. Her sons are now teenagers. “If you don’t know your options, you don’t have any,” said Chester, now a program director for Healthy Futures of Texas, a nonprofit sexual health advocacy and education organization. (Huetteman, 9/20)
