Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Justice Department Seeks Temporary Injunction On Texas Abortion Law
NPR: The Justice Department Wants A Judge To Temporarily Block Texas' Abortion Ban
The Justice Department asked a federal judge in Texas to temporarily block enforcement of the state's new law that bans abortions after about six weeks. This step, a major move by the Biden administration against the highly controversial law, follows a lawsuit filed by the Justice Department last week. The Biden administration asked the court late Tuesday to implement the preliminary injunction while the lawsuit plays out in federal court. Texas's abortion ban essentially stops the procedure in the country's second-largest state. Most people don't know they are pregnant before six weeks. (Diaz, 9/15)
The Wall Street Journal: Justice Department Asks Federal Judge To Quickly Block Texas Abortion Law
The Justice Department asked a federal judge to block a restrictive Texas abortion law temporarily while its lawsuit challenging the state’s near-ban on the procedure moves forward. “This relief is necessary to protect the constitutional rights of women in Texas and the sovereign interest of the United States in ensuring that its states respect the terms of the national compact,” the department said in an emergency motion late Tuesday that seeks a temporary restraining order or preliminary injunction against the Texas law. (Kendall and Bravin, 9/15)
In related news about the Texas abortion case —
ABC News: SCOTUS Allowing Texas To Mostly Ban Abortions 'Very Bad' But Not Political: Justice Breyer
Justice Stephen Breyer said Tuesday the Supreme Court’s recent 5-4 decision allowing Texas to effectively ban abortion across the state was “very bad” but not politically motivated. “We don’t trade votes, and members of the court have different judicial philosophies,” Breyer, the court’s most senior liberal justice, told George Stephanopoulos on ABC's "Good Morning America." (Dwyer, 9/14)
The Hill: Senators Denounce Protest Staged Outside Home Of Justice Kavanaugh
The top Democratic and Republican members of a powerful Senate panel condemned a protest held Monday night outside the home of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, stating that public officials’ residences and families should be off limits. The protest, organized by the liberal group ShutDownDC, came in response to the Supreme Court’s 5-4 vote earlier this month to leave intact Texas’s new six-week abortion ban, which many legal experts see as a possible precursor to the further erosion of abortion rights. (Kruzel, 9/14)
San Antonio Express-News: PR Firm Offers Employees $10K To Leave Texas Over Abortion Ban
A California-based public relations firm is offering its Texas-based employees $10,000 to help them move out of the state in response to a new Texas law that cuts off abortions once a fetal heartbeat is detected. Bospar, a tech public relations agency out of San Francisco, made the announcement last week. “Companies and businesses with employees in Texas have a choice right now: offer employees control of their own reproductive health or risk them leaving,” Sarah Freeman, a Bospar senior account executive based in Austin, said in a news release. (Pettaway, 9/14)
In other news about abortion —
Louisville Courier Journal: EMW Women's Clinic In Downtown Louisville Gets Painted Buffer Zone
Yellow lines have been painted outside the EMW women's clinic in downtown Louisville as part of the creation of a "buffer zone" outside the facility, advocates for the plan said Tuesday afternoon. Louisville Metro Council approved an ordinance to create a 10-foot-wide buffer zone around the clinic, a frequent site of protests over abortion access, by a 14-11 vote in May. The announcement of the lines being painted comes a week after a federal judge declined to halt the implementation of the buffer zone amid a lawsuit filed by the anti-abortion group Sisters for Life. (Ramsey, 9/14)
