First Edition: June 30, 2022

KHN: Montana’s Blackfeet Tribe To Use Dogs To Sniff Out Disease And Contaminants 
Kenneth Cook used a mallet and a chisel to crack into a pig’s skull in the gravel driveway outside his home on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation in northwestern Montana. Cook planned to use the pig’s brains in brain tanning, practiced by Indigenous people for thousands of years. (Bolton, 6/30)

KHN: California May Require Labels On Pot Products To Warn Of Mental Health Risks 
Liz Kirkaldie’s grandson was near the top of his class in high school and a talented jazz bassist when he started smoking pot. The more serious he got about music, the more serious he got about pot. And the more serious he got about pot, the more paranoid, even psychotic, he became. He started hearing voices. (Dembosky, 6/30)

KHN: Watch: Crossing State Lines For Abortion Care 
Since last week’s Supreme Court ruling overturning Roe v. Wade, one state after another has outlawed abortion. Illinois is one of the few states in the middle of the country where people can still legally access abortion care. In this report co-produced by PBS NewsHour, KHN senior correspondent Sarah Varney traveled from Illinois’ border with Missouri to its border with Wisconsin to talk to clinicians who provide abortion care. Dr. Erin King is the executive director of Hope Clinic for Women in Granite City, Illinois, across the Mississippi River from St. Louis. (6/29)

Bloomberg: Biden Seeks To Boost Abortion Patient Privacy After Roe Tossed
The Biden administration moved to assure women that sensitive information – including medical records related to abortion and data collected by health and period tracking apps – could be shielded from law enforcement after the Supreme Court overturned the constitutional right to an abortion. The Department of Health and Human Services issued new guidance Wednesday telling health-care providers they are not required to - and often legally prohibited from – disclosing private health-care information related to abortion and other sexual and reproductive health care. (Sink, 6/30)

The Wall Street Journal: Abortion Ruling Prompts Privacy Guidelines From Biden Administration
For instance, the guidance document says, a hospital employee who suspected a patient of having an abortion in a state where it is illegal couldn’t report that to law-enforcement personnel unless a state law specifically required such reporting. (Mathews, 6/29)

The Washington Post: The Planned Parenthood Website Shares Your Data
An investigation by Lockdown Privacy, the maker of an app that blocks online tracking, found that Planned Parenthood’s web scheduler can share information with a variety of third parties, including Google, Facebook, TikTok and Hotjar, a tracking tool that says it helps companies understand how customers behave. These outside companies receive data including IP addresses, approximate Zip codes and service selections, which privacy experts worry could be valuable to state governments looking to prosecute abortions. (Hunter, 6/29)

The Washington Post: Abortion Is Illegal For Millions. Will Big Tech Help Prosecute It?
Even before Roe v. Wade was overturned, tech workers and privacy advocates had a big question: Will Big Tech help in abortion prosecutions by sharing user data with police? (De Vynck, O'Donovan, Tiku and Dwoskin, 6/29)

The New York Times: In States Banning Abortion, A Growing Rift Over Enforcement 
Dozens of Democratic prosecutors who represent liberal pockets in conservative states already have vowed to resist bans by refusing to bring charges against abortion providers. But in many rural areas and outlying suburbs, conservative prosecutors have said they will enforce their state bans. (Goodman and Healy, 6/29)

CNN: Abortion: Some Big-City District Attorneys Vow Not To Prosecute Providers, Setting Up Legal Clashes In Red States 
More than a third of the district attorneys representing the 25 most populous counties in states that have banned or are set to ban abortion have publicly vowed not to prosecute abortion cases, according to a CNN review. (Tolan, 6/30)

The Washington Post: Anti-Abortion Lawmakers Seek To Block Patients From Crossing State Lines 
Several national antiabortion groups and their allies in Republican-led state legislatures are advancing plans to stop people in states where abortion is banned from seeking the procedure elsewhere, according to people involved in the discussions. ... The Thomas More Society, a conservative legal organization, is drafting model legislation for state lawmakers that would allow private citizens to sue anyone who helps a resident of a state that has banned abortion from terminating a pregnancy outside of that state. (Kitchener and Barrett, 6/29)

The New York Times: First Amendment Confrontation May Loom In Post-Roe Fight 
The Supreme Court declared clearly last week that there is no federal right to abortion. But how the decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization affects the right to talk about abortion remains far from settled, teeing up what legal experts said was a looming confrontation over whether the First Amendment allows censoring speech about a medical procedure that will become illegal in much of the country. In states where abortion is outlawed, for instance, how can women be informed of their options elsewhere? (Peters, 6/29)

The Wall Street Journal: New Abortion Lawsuits Continue In States Cutting Access
State court battles over the future of abortion access continued to expand Wednesday, as abortion providers in Ohio and West Virginia filed legal challenges to state laws curtailing access to the procedure. In Ohio, abortion-rights groups and local providers asked the state Supreme Court to block a law banning abortion after around six weeks of pregnancy that went into effect on Friday. ... In West Virginia, abortion providers and advocates filed a lawsuit in state court challenging a law dating back to the 1800s that has created uncertainty over whether abortion is legal in the state, causing providers to stop offering the procedure. (Kusisto and Calfas, 6/29)

AP: Arizona Attorney General: Pre-1901 Abortion Ban Enforceable 
Arizona’s Republican attorney general announced Wednesday that a pre-statehood law that bans all abortions is enforceable and that he will soon file for the removal of an injunction that has blocked it for nearly 50 years. Attorney General Mark Brnovich’s office said after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned its 1973 decision that said abortion was a constitutional right that he was weighing whether the old law could be be enforced. (Christie, 6/30)

The Washington Post: On Abortion, Virginia Gov. Youngkin Says He Will Sign ‘Any Bill ... To Protect Life’ 
Gov. Glenn Youngkin said this week he believes life begins at conception and vowed to sign “any bill … to protect life” that reaches his desk, expressing more ambitious antiabortion goals than he set out last year on the campaign trail or expects to pull off in the next legislative session. (Vozzella, 6/29)

Des Moines Register: Gov. Kim Reynolds Not Planning Special Legislative Session On Abortion
Gov. Kim Reynolds said Wednesday that she has no plans to call Iowa lawmakers back to the Capitol for a special session to pass more abortion legislation this year following a pair of court rulings that opened the door for more restrictions. (Richardson, 6/29)

The Washington Post: Texas AG Says He’d Defend Sodomy Law If Supreme Court Revisits Ruling
The Republican attorney general, who is running for reelection in November, suggested he would be comfortable supporting a law outlawing intimate same-sex relationships. (Bella, 6/29)

The Hill: Biden Plans To Nominate Anti-Abortion Lawyer As Federal Judge: Yarmuth
President Biden plans to nominate a conservative lawyer who has represented anti-abortion causes to a federal judgeship in Kentucky, according to Rep. John Yarmuth’s (D-Ky.) office. Chad Meredith, the attorney, has previously served as Kentucky’s solicitor general and represented a number of Kentucky’s top GOP officials in cases curbing abortion access and COVID-19 public health measures. (Schonfeld, 6/29)

AP: Admitting Privileges Issue Revived At Abortion Clinics
Louisiana officials have asked a federal judge to reinstate a law requiring that doctors who perform abortions have admitting privileges at a nearby hospital. That law was blocked in 2017 by a federal judge who said it illegally affected a woman’s right to an abortion. The state argues that Friday’s Supreme Court ruling reversing the right to abortion means the law can be enforced. (6/29)

AP: Judge Nixes Town Mandate To Bury Or Cremate Fetal Remains
A Delaware judge on Wednesday struck down a small town’s ordinance mandating burial or cremation of fetal remains. The ruling by Vice Chancellor J. Travis Laster came in a lawsuit filed by Democratic Attorney General Kathleen Jennings against the southern Delaware town of Seaford. The town council passed the ordinance in December after Planned Parenthood opened a facility in Seaford in September, its first clinic in southern Delaware since a Rehoboth Beach location closed in 2011. (Chase, 6/29)

The Courier-Journal: GE Appliances, JCPS, Papa Johns, Humana Weigh In On Abortion Coverage
Several companies have announced intentions to offer financial assistance to employees seeking to travel to another state to have an abortion in the wake of last week's Supreme Court ruling ending access in Kentucky and other states. While a few national companies spoke out in support of access prior to the ruling — in response to the draft opinion leaked in May that foreshadowed the decision's reversal — most largely avoided taking a stance on abortion rights. (Johnson, Glowicki and Ladd, 6/30)

St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Hospital System Does About-Face On Emergency Contraceptives, Says Missouri Law Unclear
A Kansas City-area hospital system decided late Wednesday to resume providing emergency contraceptives after not making them available to patients in the wake of Missouri’s new abortion ban. But concern and confusion over their use remain. (Munz and Suntrup, 6/29)

AP: Amazon, Rite Aid Cap Purchase Of Emergency Contraceptives 
Amazon is limiting how many emergency contraceptives consumers can buy, joining other retailers who put in place similar caps following the Supreme Court decision overruling Roe v. Wade. Amazon’s limit, which temporarily caps purchase of the contraceptives at three units per week, went into effect on Monday, a spokesperson for the e-commerce giant confirmed to The Associated Press. (Hadero, 6/30)

The Wall Street Journal: Online Healthcare Companies Increase Advertising For Morning-After Pill 
Companies that sell sexual health products and medicines over the internet are shifting their marketing strategies to highlight the availability of mail-order emergency contraception, commonly known as morning-after pills. ... Some online providers are encouraging customers to stock up for later emergencies. (Deighton, 6/29)

The Atlantic: The Abortion Pill Can Be Used Later Than The FDA Says
When the U.S. finally approved medication abortion in 2000—much delayed because of political controversy—the FDA allowed only self-managed abortions up to seven weeks and did not extend to 10 weeks until 2016. Since then, though, international consensus has shifted with new data. The World Health Organization now recommends 12 weeks, or the end of the first trimester, as the cutoff for self-managing a medication abortion. ... In countries where abortion is or until recently had been illegal, such as Mexico, Argentina, Ecuador, and Chile, activists have for years helped women self-manage medication abortions in the second trimester up to 24 weeks. Different stages in pregnancy just require different doses of the drugs. (Zhang, 6/29)

The 19th: How Much Does An Abortion Cost? Travel, Medical Supplies Have Prices Rising
Soaring inflation is making travel more expensive just as millions of people have lost access to abortion in their own states, stretching the already limited resources of the private funds that help people pay for the procedures. (Luthra, 6/29)

ABC News: Mobile Abortion Clinics Ramp Up Operations As Roe V. Wade Is Overturned 
Just The Pill, which was founded in 2020, provides reproductive health care services in Colorado, Minnesota, Montana and Wyoming. They also currently operate two mobile clinics in Colorado. The services Just The Pill provides include medication abortion, which is an abortion procedure that uses a combination of pills to terminate a pregnancy. The group announced it would build a fleet of mobile clinics that would travel across the country, specifically in states where abortion remains legal yet surrounding states have banned the procedure, such as Illinois and New Mexico. (Moscufo and Mielke, 6/29)

The Washington Post: Senators Kill Sweeping Plan To Reshape Sprawling VA Health Care System 
A long-sought realignment of the country’s largest health care system was killed this week by bipartisan political resistance through a short news release from 12 senators who said they would not approve the nine nominees up for confirmation to establish the Asset and Infrastructure Review (AIR) Commission. And a costly four-year effort to reposition VA in an increasingly competitive health care market fell victim to the principle that, just as all politics is local, so, apparently, is any decision to shift services for a constituency as crucial as veterans. (Rein, 6/29)

AP: Realignment Of Veterans' Healthcare Facilities On Hold 
Proposed changes in veterans’ healthcare facilities in South Dakota and elsewhere are on hold for now. Some U.S. senators, including South Dakota’s Mike Rounds and John Thune, have agreed to dismantle a commission tasked by the Department of Veterans Affairs to carry out closures, downsizing and other significant changes to medical facilities. That means the VA Hospital in Hot Springs will remain open. (6/29)

NBC News: U.S. Military Hasn't Implemented Measure To Help Service Members Seek Mental Health Care
The U.S. military has not yet put a six-month-old federal law designed to improve how service members get mental health care into effect, despite a recent rash of suicides in the Navy. The Brandon Act, which allows members of the military to confidentially seek mental health help, was signed into law by President Joe Biden in December under the 2022 National Defense Authorization Act. (Chan, 6/29)

The Wall Street Journal: U.S. Agrees To Pay $3.2 Billion For More Pfizer Covid Vaccines 
The Biden administration has agreed to pay $3.2 billion for 105 million doses of Pfizer Inc.’s Covid-19 vaccine. The deal would provide supplies for the federal government’s planned fall booster campaign. ... Under the deal, the federal government would have the option to buy 195 million additional doses, the Health and Human Services Department said Wednesday. (Restuccia and Hopkins, 6/29)

CIDRAP: Maternal Deaths Climbed 33% During COVID-19 
For underlying cause-of-death codes, the authors determined that the largest relative increase was among indirect causes (56.9%), specifically other viral diseases (2,374.7%), diseases of the respiratory system (117.7%), and diseases of the circulatory system (72.1%). Relative increases in direct causes (27.7%) were mostly associated with diabetes in pregnancy (95.9%), high blood pressure (39.0%), and other pregnancy-related conditions (48.0%). (Wappes, 6/29)

The New York Times: Fauci Says He Believes Paxlovid Kept Him Out Of The Hospital, Even Though He Tested Positive Again
Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, President Biden’s top medical adviser for the coronavirus pandemic, sought on Wednesday to discourage doubts about the antiviral drug Paxlovid after disclosing that he had suffered what appeared to be a “rebound” of Covid-19 after taking a five-day course of the pills. (Stolberg, 6/30)

The Washington Post: The Pandemic Is Waning. Anthony Fauci Has a Few More Lessons to Share
Since March 2020, Dr. Anthony Fauci has a been a ubiquitous presence in the news. But despite the countless stories about him and his endless TV appearances, most Americans still don’t have a sense of what he’s learned in his role as their top doctor: what he’s come to understand about pandemics, about the good and bad of government service, and, really, about all of us. (Peele, 6/29)

St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Missouri Mental Health Facility Struggles To Find Room To Isolate Patients With COVID
Living space is so limited at a controversial lock-up for some of Missouri’s most troubled residents that they aren’t kept away from roommates who test positive for COVID-19. Stan Schell, 74, said this scenario recently played out for him in Farmington at Sex Offender Rehabilitation and Treatment Services, or SORTS, a Missouri Department of Mental Health program for sexually violent predators civilly committed against their will. In a letter, Schell said he lives in a small room with three other patients. He said two of them tested positive May 31. Schell said his request to move the men into isolation elsewhere was denied. (Bogan, 6/29)

AP: Health Officials: Michigan Has 1st Probable Monkeypox Case 
Michigan’s first probable case of monkeypox has been identified in suburban Detroit, health officials said Wednesday. The case was identified in an Oakland County resident who is currently isolating and does not pose a risk to the public, the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services reported. (6/30)

Bloomberg: Monkeypox Cases: NYC Says 62 People Presumed To Have Tested Positive
A total of 62 people in New York City are presumed to have tested positive for monkeypox. Most of the patients that have tested positive are experiencing mild illnesses that have not required hospitalization, the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene said on its website on Wednesday. (Sapienza, 6/29)

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Monkeypox Cases Rise In Georgia, Small Number Of Vaccines Ordered
Georgia Public Health officials ordered a small number of a monkeypox vaccines for high-risk people as new cases of the virus continue to climb here and around the world. Federal health officials announced plans Tuesday to send several thousand vaccine doses from the federal government’s Strategic National Stockpile across the country for people who may have been exposed to the virus. (Oliviero, 6/29)

Stat: Health Insurers And Employers Now Have To Publish What They Pay For Care
The federal government’s latest push for more health care price transparency starts July 1, and it is focused on those who are writing the checks: Health insurance companies and employers that directly pay for their workers’ medical care will have to start posting data on what they pay hospitals, doctors, and other providers. (Herman, 6/30)

USA Today: More Than Half Of Hospitals Haven't Revealed Pricing Data, Study Says
Since the beginning of 2021, a federal law has required hospitals to post prices and establish a consumer-friendly price list for 300 common procedures and services. But a new study finds more than half of U.S. hospitals have failed to meet either of the two main requirements of the federal Hospital Price Transparency law, which aims to give consumers an opportunity to shop for prices before getting non-emergency medical care. (Alltucker, 6/30)

Modern Healthcare: CMS Updates Nursing Home Staffing Compliance Guidelines
Nursing home surveyors will begin using payroll data to investigate noncompliance with staffing rules, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services announced in guidance issued Wednesday. The agency also states that long-term care facilities must employ at least a part-time infection prevention employee, elaborates on new arbitration requirements and more. The guidance takes effect Oct. 24. The document is part of President Joe Biden's crackdown on nursing home safety and quality. (Goldman, 6/29)

Modern Healthcare: Alignment Healthcare Expands As Insurtech Rivals Shring Their Footprint
Alignment Healthcare will expand into Texas and Florida, two of the most competitive and fastest-growing Medicare Advantage markets in the nation. In addition to offering Medicare Advantage in those states during open enrollment this year, the company on Wednesday said it also plans to extend its reach into more counties in Arizona, California, Nevada and North Carolina for the upcoming plan year, pending regulatory approval. (Tepper, 6/29)

The Wall Street Journal: Rite Aid CFO Looks To Cut Debt As Earnings Suffer 
Rite Aid Corp. is closing stores and looking for ways to boost its revenue as it faces widening losses and a pile of debt. (Maurer, 6/29)

NPR: Doctor's Experience In A Mid-Flight Emergency Opens Questions About Medical Kits
A couple of hours into her Delta Air Lines flight to Portugal earlier this month, Dr. Andrea Merrill heard the call to help a fellow passenger with a medical emergency. She approached the scene and was handed a red bag. "They told me it was the medical kit, and I opened it up to see what's in there because I've never been in a medical emergency before," Merrill said. What was in the kit surprised her. (Marquez Janse and Fox, 6/29)

The New York Times: Behind the Scenes, McKinsey Guided Companies at the Center of the Opioid Crisis
Much has been disclosed over the years about McKinsey’s relationship with Purdue Pharma, including the consulting firm’s recommendation that the drug maker “turbocharge” its sales of OxyContin. But The Times found that the firm played a far deeper and broader role in advising clients involved in the opioid crisis than was publicly disclosed. Newly released McKinsey records include more than 15 years of emails, slide presentations, spreadsheets, proposals and other documents. (Hamby and Forsythe, 6/29)

The Washington Post: U.S. Population Continues To Become Older, More Diverse, Census Data Shows 
The U.S. population is continuing a two-decade trajectory during which it has grown older and less White, according to Census Bureau data released Thursday. (Bahrampour, 6/30)

The Washington Post: More Than 150 Grand Canyon Visitors Infected With Norovirus 
More than 150 rafters and backcountry campers who visited the Grand Canyon in April and May reported symptoms of a gastrointestinal illness, the National Park Service said this week. The symptoms — including nausea, stomach cramping and pain, vomiting, and diarrhea — are representative of norovirus, according to a release from the National Park Service Office of Public Health. (Compton, 6/29)

AP: Dental Coverage To Expand To More Than 200K Maine Residents 
A state that has among the fewest dentists in the Northeast will soon expand dental care access. Maine has about 55 dentists per 100,000 residents, which is below the national average of about 61 and well below New England states such as Massachusetts and Connecticut. State officials said Wednesday more than 200,000 Maine residents will start getting access to dental care coverage on Friday. (6/29)

North Carolina Health News: Streamlined Medicaid For NC Foster Kids Hits A Wall 
A few years ago, Gaile Osborne and her husband took in several foster children. Osborne, a special education teacher, should have been the perfect foster parent. There was one problem. Osborne and her family lived in Buncombe County. The children were originally from Alamance County. That meant Osborne was unable to get the mental health services her foster children needed from Vaya, the local mental health management entity (known as an LME-MCO) that covers western North Carolina. Hoban, 6/30)

AP: California Late Start Law Aims To Make School Less Of A Yawn 
Beginning this fall high schools in the nation’s most populous state can’t start before 8:30 a.m. and middle schools can’t start before 8 a.m. under a 2019 first-in-the-nation law forbidding earlier start times. Similar proposals are before lawmakers in New Jersey and Massachusetts. Advocates say teens do better on school work when they’re more alert, and predict even broader effects: a reduction in suicides and teen car accidents and improved physical and mental health. (Thompson, 6/30)

San Francisco Chronicle: SF Ranks Worst In California For Police-Caused Hospitalization Rates For Black Residents
A new UCSF study is drawing a sharp link between lingering racial segregation and the increased threat of police violence against Black residents. The study, published Wednesday in the JAMA Network, an online medical journal, also reveals something else: Out of 52 California counties included in the study, San Francisco had the highest injury rate for Black residents. (Narayan, 6/29)

AP: Ski Resort To Retire Name To Avoid Mental Health Connotation 
A small ski area in Vermont has announced that it’s retiring its name, Suicide Six, this summer amid growing concerns about the insensitive nature of the historical name. The resort said on its website on Tuesday that it shares those concerns and “embraces the increasing awareness surrounding mental health.” (6/29)