Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
GOP Looks To Thwart 2024 Abortion Ballot Measures; Dems Lean Into Issue
Politico: Conservatives Move To Keep Abortion Off The 2024 Ballot
Conservatives are testing new tactics to keep abortion off the ballot following a series of high-profile defeats. In Arizona, Florida, Nevada and other states, several anti-abortion groups are buying TV and digital ads, knocking on doors and holding events to persuade people against signing petitions to put the issue before voters in November. Republicans are also appealing to state courts to keep referendums off the ballot, while GOP lawmakers in states including Missouri and Oklahoma are pushing to raise the threshold for an amendment to pass or to make it to the ballot in the first place. (Ollstein and Messerly, 12/18)
The Hill: Democrats See 2024 Campaign Issue In Texas Abortion Case
The Texas Supreme Court’s recent decision to block a Dallas woman from terminating a troubled pregnancy has cast a bright new light on GOP efforts to ban abortions and kindled a new fire under outraged Democrats, who are vowing to make the issue a central element of their 2024 campaign message. (Lillis, 12/18)
The New York Times: Why Democracy Hasn’t Settled The Abortion Question
Republican-controlled legislatures, shocked by the results of ballot measures that put the question of abortion directly to the people, are trying to make those measures harder to pass, and even abolish them as an option. The issue is now in a different set of courts, in the states, where anti-abortion groups have searched out like-minded judges in an attempt to take abortion pills off the market. Last week, the United States Supreme Court — the black robes who were supposed to have put themselves out of the business of deciding abortion — announced that it would take that case. And some of the same Republicans who once argued that abortion should be settled by the will of the people in the states now argue that what is needed is for Congress to pass a uniform federal law. (Zernike, 12/18)
CBS News: Florida Abortion Measure Tops 753K Signatures
A proposed constitutional amendment aimed at ensuring abortion rights got a boost in petition signatures during the past week. The Florida Division of Elections website Friday showed 753,306 valid petition signatures for the measure, up from 687,700 a week earlier. The political committee Floridians Protecting Freedom, which is sponsoring the measure, will need to submit at least 891,523 valid signatures statewide and meet signature requirements in at least half of the state's congressional districts to get on the November 2024 ballot. The committee faces a Feb. 1 deadline for meeting the requirements. (12/15)
Fox News: Former Trump Adviser Kellyanne Conway Leads Charge To Overhaul GOP Abortion Strategy, End Dems’ 2024 Advantage
Republican strategist and former Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway is leading the charge to shift the GOP's messaging strategy on abortion and contraceptives ahead of the 2024 election. (Gillespie, 12/17)
Abortion news from Wyoming, Ohio, and Texas —
Houston Chronicle: After Texas Abortion Ruling Adds To Confusion, Will The State’s Medical Board Step In?
But the medical board has so far been silent on how physicians should navigate the legal gray areas around patients like Kate Cox, the 31-year-old Dallas woman, despite requests from people on both sides of the abortion debate. And in a phone call with Hearst Newspapers, Dr. Sherif Zaafran, the president of the board, said it would be impractical to weigh in on specific situations. “We can’t put up every single hypothetical scenario that’s out there,” Zaafran said. “At the end of the day, what you can reference is what the attorney general put out there, and that’s what we put on our website.” (Gill, 12/15)
Time: That Texas Abortion Case Is Even Worse Than You Think
So much of the national conversation this week has been about Kate Cox, the 31-year-old mom who had to flee Texas to have an abortion to end a doomed pregnancy as the state's Supreme Court slowly decided to substitute its judgment for her doctor’s advice. But what’s been missing from most of the talk about this case is this reality: Texas has at least three separate laws on the books designed to make getting an abortion nearly impossible. Those overlapping, vague statutes not only create one of the most restrictive environments in the country for reproductive rights, but shaped Cox’s case in ways that many following her ordeal likely missed. (Elliott, 12/15)
KHOL/ Jackson Hole Community Radio: Future Of Abortion In Wyoming Remains Undecided
A Teton County judge heard four hours of arguments on Thursday in the state’s ongoing legal battle over abortion access. But Wyoming Ninth District Court Judge Melissa Owens did not issue a ruling, citing “complex constitutional issues.” (Merzbach, 12/15)
AP: An Order Blocking Ohio's Abortion Ban Still Stands After A State Supreme Court Action
The Ohio Supreme Court has dismissed the state’s challenge to a judge’s order that has blocked enforcement of Ohio’s near-ban on abortions for the past 14 months. The ruling moves action in the case back to Hamilton County Common Pleas, where abortion clinics asked Judge Christian Jenkins this week to throw out the law following voters’ decision to approve enshrining abortion rights in the state constitution. (12/16)
NBC4: Lack Of Funding Forces Ohio's Abortion Fund To Temporarily Close
Hardly a week after a monumental win for abortion rights supporters came into effect in Ohio, the state’s sole abortion fund has closed until February due to a lack of funding. What was supposed to be a break until the new year has extended to a six-week closure of the Abortion Fund of Ohio, which provides financial, logistical and emotional support to people seeking abortions. After a record-breaking year, both in number of patients served and amount of money given, Lexi Dotson-Dufault, executive director of the fund, said money – and the large-scale donors behind it – has dried up. (Szilagy, 12/18)
AP: A Black Ohio Woman Was Charged With A Felony After A Miscarriage At Home
Ohio was in the throes of a bitter debate over abortion rights this fall when Brittany Watts, 21 weeks and 5 days pregnant, began passing thick blood clots. The 33-year-old Watts, who had not shared the news of her pregnancy even with her family, made her first prenatal visit to a doctor’s office behind Mercy Health-St. Joseph’s Hospital in Warren, a working-class city about 60 miles (100 kilometers) southeast of Cleveland. (Carr Smyth, 12/16)
ABC News: Meet 18 Women Who Shared Heartbreaking Pregnancy Journeys In Post-Roe World
In a monthslong investigation, 18 women from across 10 states shared their deeply personal stories, chronicling their heartbreaking journeys and how, in some cases, they were brought to the brink of death because they couldn't access timely care in their home states. (El-Bawab, Scott, Ng, and Nunes, 12/16)
