Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Conn. Bill Would Shield Residents From Out-Of-State Abortion Penalties
NPR: Connecticut Looks To Expand Abortion Rights In Response To Restrictions
Lawmakers in Connecticut have approved a bill that would expand the types of medical professionals who can provide abortion services in the state and shield residents from facing penalties under other states' anti-abortion laws. The legislation is partly a response to the wave of new measures in conservative states restricting abortion access and in some cases levying civil and criminal penalties on people who perform them. (Hernandez, 5/1)
Axios: Connecticut Passes Bill To Make State Safe Haven For Abortion Providers
The Connecticut state Senate passed a bill late Friday night to protect abortion providers from bans in other states that are enforced via civil lawsuits. The unique legislation is a direct response to laws in Texas, Idaho and Oklahoma that ban abortions either entirely or as soon as six weeks into pregnancy and allow private parties to sue anyone who they suspect has helped a person obtain an abortion. (Gonzalez, 4/30)
New York Times: Connecticut Moves To Blunt Impact Of Other States’ Antiabortion Laws
The law would protect a provider in Connecticut who administers an abortion that is legal in the state to a resident of a different state where the procedure is illegal, by prohibiting Connecticut authorities from cooperating with investigative requests or extradition orders from the patient’s home state. The law would also allow people who are sued over their role in providing an abortion to countersue in Connecticut court, and to recoup legal fees and other costs if they win. As states across the country prepare for the possibility of a post-Roe world, many are tightening restrictions on abortion. Twenty-six states — a swath stretching from Florida to Idaho — would ban or severely restrict the procedure if the court overturns Roe. (Maslin Nir and Zernike, 4/30)
In other abortion news —
AP: SC House Approves Bill Over Unproven Abortion Pill Reversal
The South Carolina House has approved a bill that [would] require doctors to tell women who seek medication to have an abortion that there is an unproven way to reverse the procedure. The 71-29 vote Wednesday sent the bill to the Senate, where its ultimate fate is unclear. There is just six legislative days left in the 2022 General Assembly’s regular session. Chemical abortions require two drugs and the bill would have doctors attach a statement to the prescription or other medical papers that research has shown a pregnancy can be saved after the first pill is taken. (4/30)
Axios: Study: Abortion Training In Peril If Supreme Court Overturns Roe V. Wade
Almost half of OB-GYN medical students will not receive any abortion training if the U.S. Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade this summer, according to a new study from the University of California, San Francisco. The court is currently considering a challenge to a 15-week abortion ban in Mississippi. A ruling in the case could jeopardize Roe's survival, or at least narrow its precedent. Red states across the U.S. are passing and enacting restrictive abortion laws in anticipation of the court's ruling, even with federal abortion protections still in place. (Gonzalez, 4/29)
Reuters: As US Abortion Access Wanes, This Doctor Travels To Fill A Void
Inside Planned Parenthood's Birmingham, Alabama, clinic, a quiet space with few windows and stock photos of the city lining the walls, a woman tapped her hand against her stomach as Dr. Shelly Tien performed a surgical abortion. Tien, 40, had flown to Birmingham the day before, and she would return home to Jacksonville, Florida, that night. A week earlier, she performed abortions at a clinic in Oklahoma. She's among an estimated 50 doctors who travel across state lines, according to the National Abortion Federation, to provide abortions in places with limited abortion access. (5/1)
