Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Doctors Are Not Killing Infants After Failed Abortions, Yet It Is Fast Becoming A GOP Talking Point For 2020 Elections
The New York Times: Trump Repeats A False Claim That Doctors ‘Execute’ Newborns
President Trump revived on Saturday night what is fast becoming a standard, and inaccurate, refrain about doctors “executing babies.” During a more than hourlong speech at a rally in Green Bay, Wis., Mr. Trump admonished the Democratic governor, Tony Evers, for vetoing a Republican bill that could send doctors to prison for life if they fail to give medical care to children born alive after a failed abortion attempt. The comments are the latest in a long string of incendiary statements from the president on abortion. (Cameron, 4/28)
The New York Times: Kansas Constitution Protects Abortion Rights, State Supreme Court Rules
The Kansas Supreme Court on Friday blocked a law that would have banned the most commonly used procedure for second-trimester abortions, arguing that the state Constitution protected the right of women to “decide whether to continue a pregnancy.” The court sided in a 6-1 majority with the plaintiffs in the case, two physicians who performed the procedure, in a sweeping ruling that opens the door for abortion rights activists to challenge a series of other restrictions that the state’s Republican-controlled Legislature has enacted. (Tavernise and Robertson, 4/26)
Reuters: Top Kansas Court Rules State Constitution Protects Abortion Rights
The ruling would protect the right to abortion in Kansas even if the conservative-leaning U.S. Supreme Court overturns Roe v Wade, the 1973 ruling that recognized a right to abortion in the U.S. Constitution. Rulings by state appeals courts on state constitutional issues are not normally subject to U.S. Supreme Court review. The state's constitution protects "the right to control one's own body, to assert bodily integrity, and to exercise self-determination," wrote the court. (4/26)
KCUR: Kansas Supreme Court: The State Constitution Protects Abortion Rights
Friday’s 87-page decision will turbo-charge efforts among conservatives in the Kansas Legislature to ban abortion in the constitution. That amendment would require support from two-thirds majorities in the House and Senate, followed by an OK from the state’s voters. House speaker Ron Ryckman said the court flouted the “moral beliefs our state was founded upon.” (Margolies and Llopis-Jepsen, 4/26)
And in other family planning news —
The Star Tribune: Trump Clinic-Funding Rule Divides Minnesota Facilities
Opponents of the new rules say the outcome of the cases could affect access to basic health care for millions of low-income patients, including 53,000 in Minnesota. Alissa Light, board president of the state-based Reproductive Health Alliance, said the proposed changes to Title X would lead to an “astronomical reduction to basic health care,” especially in rural areas. Thirty-one providers in Minnesota, including 17 Planned Parenthood clinics, could lose funding under the rule. Three-quarters of the centers are located in greater Minnesota. (Van Oot, 4/29)
