Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Fear Of Getting Pregnant Post-Roe Makes Some Plan To Forgo Kids
Politico: The End Of Roe Is Having A Chilling Effect On Pregnancy
The end of Roe v. Wade in June 2022 has had a profound effect on maternal healthcare and abortion access across the country. Fourteen states have now completely banned abortion and two dozen more have bans at 22 weeks or less. As a result, an already grim maternal health care landscape has worsened. New data reveals an unexpected consequence of these developments: Young women, even those in states where abortion remains legal, say they are foregoing having children because they are afraid to get pregnant because of changes that followed the Dobbs decision that ended Roe. (Leader, 9/13)
The Boston Globe: Layoffs At Planned Parenthood Shake Staff In Post-Roe World
As news of a restructure and layoffs spread at Planned Parenthood Federation of America earlier this year, the tension and uncertainty was palpable throughout the organization. Less than two weeks before the anniversary of the Supreme Court’s repeal of a landmark abortion rights law, more than 100 employees on Planned Parenthood’s national staff received notice they would lose their jobs, even after a year in which they saw donations rise in response to the decision. The reason for the cuts, leadership explained, was to funnel more “direct investment” to its 49 affiliates, the constellation of Planned Parenthood-accredited clinics that do on-the-ground work, including providing abortions. They assured them it wasn’t financial issues, but a focus shift to better serve those on the front lines in the fight for abortion access. (Villa de Petrzelka, 9/14)
Abortion news from Capitol Hill and the campaign trail —
Politico: A House GOP Attempt To Advance Abortion Measure Backfires In Funding Fight
House GOP leaders have abandoned efforts to pass an agriculture funding bill amid an intraparty row over abortion policy. Now, Speaker Kevin McCarthy is left without critical leverage as the Democratic-majority Senate advances its own plans and Congress hurtles toward a federal shutdown Oct. 1. House GOP leaders had hoped that inserting abortion policy into every major piece of their government spending plans would help win over conservative members and placate influential outside groups agitating for more aggressive action on the issue. But so far, the move has helped to seal the demise of what is usually among the easiest appropriations bills for Congress to pass, drawing fierce and rare pushback from more than a dozen moderate Republicans. (Hill and Ollstein, 9/13)
The Washington Post: Republican Lawmakers Pass Millions In New Funding For Crisis Pregnancy Centers As Democrats Push Back
GOP state lawmakers have passed millions in new funding for crisis pregnancy centers, which aim to dissuade women from having abortions. (Kindy, 9/14)
Bloomberg: Pentagon Vows To Stick With Abortion Policy, Spurning Tuberville’s Demands
The Pentagon won’t yield to demands from Senator Tommy Tuberville to scrap its travel policy for service members seeking an abortion in exchange for lifting his blockade on more than 300 military promotions, Defense Department spokeswoman Sabrina Singh said Wednesday. “We are not changing our policy,” Singh said on Bloomberg Television’s “Balance of Power.” (Tiron, 9/13)
The Hill: DeSantis: Criminalizing Women For Getting Abortions ‘Will Not Happen In Florida’
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) said Wednesday that he does not support criminalizing abortion in his state. “We have no criminal penalty,” he said in a CBS News interview. “The penalties are for the physician.” Florida’s six-week abortion ban is not in effect, pending a lawsuit, but would enable the state to pursue felony charges against “any person who willfully performs or actively participates in a termination of pregnancy,” it reads. (Robertson, 9/13)
Also —
Vox: The Unconstitutional Plan To Stop Women From Traveling Out Of State For An Abortion, Explained
As the Court explained in Saenz v. Roe (1999), the right to travel has “three different components” — the right of citizens to “enter and to leave another State,” the right to be treated “as a welcome visitor” when visiting another state, and the right to be treated the same way as established residents of a state after moving to that state. Each of these rights flows from a different provision of the Constitution. Of those three components, the right to travel out of state to obtain an abortion flows from the right to citizens to “enter and leave another State,” and the Court indicated in Edwards v. California (1941) that this right is rooted in a doctrine known as the dormant commerce clause. (Millhiser, 9/12)
The Washington Post: A Navy Chaplain’s Stillbirth Tests Military Medical Malpractice System
The pain surged throughout her lower body. Navy chaplain Mercedes Petitfrere, 20 weeks pregnant with her first child, rushed to the emergency room at her military hospital in Jacksonville, N.C. Her abdomen throbbed. She could hardly walk. It hurt to pee. A midwife at Naval Medical Center Camp Lejeune attributed her pain to fibroids. But Petitfrere — a 35-year-old Black lieutenant whose pregnancy was considered high-risk because of her age — explained that she’d had the benign growths in her uterus for a long time, and that they had never caused any pain. (Shapira, 9/14)
KFF Health News and WBEZ Chicago: Abortion Bans Fuel A Rise In High-Risk Patients Heading To Illinois Hospitals
When she was around 22 weeks pregnant, the patient found out that the son she was carrying didn’t have kidneys and his lungs wouldn’t develop. If he survived the birth, he would struggle to breathe and die within hours. The patient had a crushing decision to make: continue the pregnancy — which could be a risk to her health and her ability to have children in the future — or have an abortion. (Schorsch, 9/14)
