Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Judges Set To Hear Appeal Challenging Mifepristone Restrictions
AP: 3 Judges Who Chipped Away Abortion Rights To Hear Federal Abortion Pill Appeal
Three conservative appeals court judges, each with a history of supporting restrictions on abortion, will hear arguments May 17 on whether a widely used abortion drug should remain available. The case involves a regulatory issue — whether the Food and Drug Administration’s approval of mifepristone, and subsequent actions making it easier to obtain, must be rolled back. The appellate hearing follows an April ruling by a federal judge in Texas, who ordered a hold on federal approval of mifepristone in a decision that overruled decades of scientific approval. His ruling was stayed pending appeal. The case was allotted to a panel made up of Jennifer Walker Elrod, James Ho and Cory Wilson. *McGill, 5/16)
Abortion news from North and South Carolina, Nebraska, and Connecticut —
AP: North Carolina GOP To Attempt Swift Override Of Governor's Abortion Veto
North Carolina’s Republican-controlled legislature on Tuesday will attempt to quickly override the governor’s veto of legislation banning nearly all abortions after 12 weeks of pregnancy in a consequential test of unity for the party’s recently attained supermajority. The Senate plans to first consider an override Tuesday afternoon, according to Senate leader Phil Berger. House Speaker Tim Moore’s chief of staff said the speaker then aims to complete the override later in the day should Senate Republicans be successful. (Schoenbaum and Robertson, 5/16)
AP: Republican Abortion Debate Inches Toward Resolution In South Carolina
Abortion access would be almost entirely banned after about six weeks of pregnancy under a bill set for debate Tuesday in the South Carolina House, after the state Senate rejected a proposal to nearly outlaw the procedure. The two GOP-dominated chambers’ disagreement epitomizes the intra-Republican debates over how far to restrict access that have developed nationwide since the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade last year and allowed states to set their own policies on abortion. (Pollard, 5/16)
AP: Nebraska Conservatives Gamble On Combining Abortion, Trans Health Bans
Conservative Nebraska lawmakers are taking what could be an all-or-nothing bet by proposing to merge two of the legislative session’s most contentious proposals — one to restrict abortion and another that would ban gender-affirming care for minors. The unconventional move follows conservatives’ failure by a single vote last month to advance a bill that would have banned abortion at around six weeks of pregnancy. Now, conservatives are backing an effort to amend the transgender health bill to include restricting abortion to 12 weeks of gestation. (Beck, 5/15)
The CT Mirror: Sandra Slack Glover, CT Supreme Court Nominee, Quizzed On Roe
The U.S. Supreme Court’s repeal of Roe v. Wade, upending a half-century of precedent and once again making abortion a matter of state’s rights, cast a long shadow Monday over the confirmation of Sandra Slack Glover to the Connecticut Supreme Court. Glover, the appellate chief for the U.S. Attorney of Connecticut, articulated a belief that the nation’s highest court egregiously erred in discarding the reproductive rights established in 1973 by Roe with a 6-3 decision last year in Dobbs vs. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. (Pazniokas, 5/15)
