Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Interstate Abortion Access Coming Down To One Thing: How You Vote
USA Today: Abortion Travel Could Get Harder, Easier With These Ballot Measures
The year began with nationwide conservative efforts to shrink abortion access. Advocates for the procedure hope to end 2024 by reversing some of these restrictions, via the ballot box. And the outcome of their efforts could have major implications for something opponents have long waged war on − interstate abortion travel. (Kuchar, 4/28)
KFF Health News: What Florida’s New 6-Week Abortion Ban Means For The South, And Traveling Patients
Monica Kelly was thrilled to learn she was expecting her second child. The Tennessee mother was around 13 weeks pregnant when, according to a lawsuit filed against the state of Tennessee, doctors gave her the devastating news that her baby had Patau syndrome. The genetic disorder causes serious developmental defects and often results in miscarriage, stillbirth, or death within one year of birth. (O’Donnell, 4/29)
Also —
USA Today: Mitch McConnell Says He Doesn't See Path For National Abortion Ban
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-K.Y., said on Sunday that he does not believe a nationwide ban on abortions would pass in his chamber, but McConnell declined to comment on whether he would personally support such a measure. “I don't think we'll get 60 votes in the Senate for any kind of national legislation,” McConnell said on NBC’s “Meet the Press" when asked whether he would back a federal abortion ban if it came to a vote. “It's going to be sorted out at the state level,” McConnell, 82, said. (Waddick, 4/28)
CNN: How Justice Amy Coney Barrett Drove The Supreme Court’s Debate On Abortion And Trump Immunity
Chief Justice John Roberts may emerge as the pivotal vote in two politically charged cases on abortion and presidential immunity the Supreme Court heard this week, but it was Justice Amy Coney Barrett who owned the arguments. In a pair of high-profile hearings, the 52-year-old former law professor dug into a lawyer defending Idaho’s strict abortion ban – at one point exclaiming she was “shocked” by his explanation of how the law worked in practice. A day later, she nudged an attorney for former President Donald Trump into a series of potentially critical concessions. (Fritze, 4/27)
The Guardian: Junk Science Is Cited In Abortion Ban Cases. Researchers Are Fighting The ‘Fatally Flawed’ Work
The retraction of three peer-reviewed articles prominently cited in court cases on the so-called abortion pill – mifepristone – has put a group of papers by anti-abortion researchers in the scientific limelight. Seventeen sexual and reproductive health researchers are calling for four peer-reviewed studies by anti-abortion researchers to be retracted or amended. The papers, critics contend, are “fatally flawed” and muddy the scientific consensus for courts and lawmakers who lack the scientific training to understand their methodological flaws. (Glenza, 4/28)
The Wall Street Journal: The Tragic Pregnancy Stories Filling The Abortion Campaign Airwaves
Amanda Zurawski has only opened a box of items she lovingly collected during her pregnancy a few times. The baby book, the blanket, stuffed animals and the tiny clothes reminded her of the harrowing days when she learned her pregnancy wasn’t viable. But last month she volunteered to go through the box, on camera, for a campaign ad on behalf of President Biden. Texas law restricting abortion initially prevented Zurawski, at 18 weeks pregnant, from getting an induction abortion. The 37-year-old contracted a serious infection before eventually delivering a stillborn baby girl. (Lucey, 4/27)
