Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Iowa Supreme Court To Rule On Waiting Periods For Abortions
Des Moines Register: Iowa Supreme Court To Rule On Abortion Law, Constitutional Right
The Iowa Supreme Court will issue its ruling Friday in a closely-watched decision that could govern the future of abortion access in the state. The court is considering an appeal from the state, which seeks to overturn a lower court's decision blocking a 2020 law imposing a 24-hour waiting period before women can get an abortion. Planned Parenthood of the Heartland successfully sued, arguing the law was unconstitutional under a 2018 Iowa Supreme Court decision that blocked a similar 72-hour waiting period. (Morris, 6/16)
In other abortion news from Texas, Kansas, Oklahoma, Tennessee, and elsewhere —
The Texas Tribune: A Texas Abortion Clinic Considers Its Post-Roe Endgame
As the frosted-glass window slides open, a dozen heads pop up, all with the same anxious, expectant look. One by one, women are called up to the desk at Alamo Women’s Reproductive Services to learn whether and when they can get an abortion. For months, the clinic has had to be the bearer of bad news, telling clients that they were too far along to terminate their pregnancies in Texas. It doesn’t get any easier, employees said, explaining again and again that the state has banned abortions after about six weeks, a point at which many don’t even know they are pregnant. But recently, the clinic has had to flip that script. Many of the women who were seen for an initial appointment on a recent Tuesday weren’t too late for an abortion — they were too early. (Klibanoff, 6/17)
Dallas Morning News: Report: Abortions Rates Rose From 2017 - 2020, But Are Declining In Texas
A new report shows the number of abortions has increased nationwide, but the numbers in Texas have been decreasing since 2020. The report, published by the pro-abortion rights Guttmacher Institute, found that abortions in the U.S. increased 8% from 2017 to 2020. The increase is a reversal of 30 years of decline in the number of abortions nationwide. The report’s authors note Texas is in some ways an outlier to the national trend. Abortions in Texas increased 7% from 2017 to 2019, then decreased 2% from 2019 to 2020. The authors said the decrease could be because of restrictions that barred most abortions from taking place at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. (Wilson, 6/16)
Kansas City Star: Advocates Target Moderates In Kansas ‘Value Them Both’ Vote
One of the first two TV ads aimed at defeating an anti-abortion amendment in Kansas doesn’t use the word abortion once. “Kansans don’t want another government mandate,” the ad, titled “mandate” says while a photo of a church closure sign flashes across the screen. The ad was released Wednesday morning by Kansans for Constitutional Freedom, a coalition of advocacy organizations and abortion providers fighting the amendment, alongside an additional 30-second spot that mentions abortion once —but only in the context of rape, incest and life of the mother. (Bernard, 6/17)
Kansas City Star: Abortion Navigators Coordinate Travel For Midwest Patients
The woman in rural Oklahoma was seeking an abortion. But last month, the state enacted a ban that effectively ended the procedure there. The closest clinic with an opening was the Planned Parenthood in Overland Park — nearly a 10-hour round-trip drive. Money and time were an issue. So last week, Angela Huntington made it happen for her. As an abortion patient navigator, she arranged for the woman to fly in a small, private plane to and from her procedure, at no cost. Huntington, who works in Columbia, Missouri, is one of six such navigators for Planned Parenthood Great Plains, which serves Kansas, Missouri, Arkansas and Oklahoma. They work with hundreds of patients every month to ensure anyone can access the procedure, even if they can’t afford it and even if they live in states that ban it. (McCarthy, 6/17)
KHN: Two Tennessee Abortion Clinics, Awaiting High-Court Ruling, Grapple With Uncertainty
Corinne Rovetti is worried about what will happen to the Knoxville Center for Reproductive Health if the Supreme Court overturns the constitutional right to abortion. The clinic, where she has worked for 33 years helping people across a four-state region, could close. “We’re unsure if we’ll be able to maintain services at all,” said Rovetti, who is the co-director and a nurse practitioner at KCRH, which provides medication abortions and abortion procedures, as well as gynecological and family planning services. Each year, the center provides abortion services to 1,300 to 1,400 patients, including people from Kentucky, Georgia, and Virginia. (Knight, 6/17)
Axios: Black Health Advocates Brace For Post-Roe Landscape
As the Supreme Court weighs the fate of Roe v. Wade, advocates and health care providers fear that cutting off access to abortion will lead to more pregnancy-related complications and deaths that disproportionately affect Black people. Black women in the U.S. are already three times more likely to die of pregnancy-related complications compared to white women. And the states poised to ban or severely limit abortion already tend to have poor health outcomes and fewer safety net programs in place for mothers and children. (Chen, 6/17)
In related news about the Supreme Court —
The Hill: Biden Signs Bill Boosting Security For SCOTUS Justices, Families
President Biden on Thursday signed bipartisan legislation to bolster security protection for Supreme Court justices and their families. The bill passed the House in a 396-27 vote on Tuesday, less than a week after an armed man was arrested outside of Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s home and charged with attempted murder. The White House said in a press release on Thursday evening that Biden had signed the bill. (Chalfant, 6/16)
The New York Times: Sotomayor Says Supreme Court Can ‘Regain The Public’s Confidence’
Justice Sonia Sotomayor urged an audience of progressive lawyers on Thursday not to give up on the Supreme Court. “We have to have continuing faith in the court system and our system of government,” she said, adding that she hoped “to regain the public’s confidence that we — as a court, as an institution — have not lost our way.” Justice Sotomayor spoke as the court entered the homestretch of a tumultuous term. In the coming weeks, it will issue momentous decisions on abortion, gun rights, climate change and religion, and there is good reason to think she will find herself in dissent in most or all of them. (Liptak, 6/16)
Looking ahead to a post-Roe world —
The Boston Globe: Could An Abortion Ban Mean More Maternal Deaths?
In a post-Roe world, reproductive health specialists warn, more mothers are likely to die — not only from a return of unsafe illegal abortions but also from pregnancy itself, which leads to a surprising number of deaths in the United States. In 2020, 861 people died in childbirth or within 42 days of the end of their pregnancy, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported last January. Women in the United States are more likely to die from childbirth or pregnancy-related causes than those in other developed countries. In 2020, the United States had the highest maternal mortality rate of 10 high-income countries, including Canada, France, and the United Kingdom. (Ebbert, 6/17)
Axios: Doctors Push To Make Birth Control Available Without Prescription
The nation's biggest physicians group is joining calls for the FDA to make birth control pills accessible over the counter. With abortion rights in flux, physicians are joining reproductive health advocates in urging increased access to oral contraceptives, which could join already approved emergency contraceptives, like Plan B, on pharmacy shelves. "It takes on a new urgency as we look down the path of having the loss of the right to abortion in this country," Dana Singiser, co-founder of the Contraceptive Access Initiative, told Axios. (Dreher, 6/16)
