Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Justice Department Wants Federal Appeals Court To Block Texas Abortion Law
AP: Justice Department Again Presses To Halt Texas Abortion Law
The Biden administration urged the courts again Monday night to step in and suspend a new Texas law that has banned most abortions since early September, as clinics hundreds of miles away remain busy with Texas patients making long journeys to get care. The latest attempt comes three days after the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reinstated the nation’s most restrictive abortion law after a brief 48-hour window last week in which Texas abortion providers — following a blistering ruling by a lower court — had rushed to bring in patients again. (Weber, 10/12)
CBS News: Justice Department Asks Court To Stop Texas Abortion Law From Being Implemented
And one of the defining features of the Texas law is the fact that no state officials are involved in enforcing actions taken against violations of the ban. Instead, the law authorizes private citizens to file civil lawsuits in state courts against alleged violators of the law — clinics, providers or even people who help a woman get an abortion — and provides a monetary incentive for them to do so. ... In Monday's filing, the government argues that the lower court's injunction against the Texas law should be reinstated because the Texas abortion law is clearly unconstitutional in denying citizens access to a judicial remedy, and is therefore unlikely to stand. (Legare, 10/12)
Dallas Morning News: Reinstatement Of Texas Abortion Law May Hinge On State Argument Challenging Federal Overreach
Seeking to end to the federal government’s legal bid to block Texas’ new abortion law, state Republican leaders want a U.S. appeals court to rule that the Biden administration has no standing to sue the state over the restrictions considered the strongest in the nation. The decision late Friday to block an injunction against the new law was made by a panel of three “intervenors” for the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals. The U.S. Department of Justice, which filed this lawsuit challenging Texas’ law, has until Tuesday at 5 p.m. to respond to Texas’ request for a longer-term reinstatement of enforcement. The decision could hinge heavily upon the state’s ability to support its argument that the federal government has no legal basis to intervene. (O'Hanlon, 10/11)
In related news about Texas' abortion law —
CNN: Advocates Fear Abortion Laws Will Worsen The Black Maternal Health Crisis
Briana McLennan was 19 years old and at least eight weeks pregnant when she had to make a tough decision: get an abortion and continue with her plans of moving to Atlanta for college, or stay home in Texas and figure out a way to raise a baby with no job and no money. McLennan decided to get the abortion with some funding help from the Texas Equal Access Fund. "I knew that I was not ready to go through with the pregnancy," McLennan said. "I was still a child myself." McLennan, now 31, still believes she made the right choice. She was able to finish college, pursue her career goals and now has a job as a social worker for the Texas Equal Access Fund. (Ellis, 10/11)
CNN: Texas Woman Died After An Unsafe Abortion Years Ago. Her Daughter Fears Same Thing May Happen Again
Outside the only abortion clinic in the border city of McAllen, Texas, a debate has played out for years. Some people pray and beg patients to not go inside as some volunteers escort patients to the entrance. But none of them were there when Rosie Jimenez died just across the street more than 40 years ago. As thousands of people marched to the Supreme Court in support of reproductive rights earlier this month, Rosie's photo was displayed in banners and her name was repeated by crowds at vigils and rallies across Texas, Arizona, California and Oregon. In McAllen, there was a defiant mood. Activists held a rally about eight blocks from the clinic that stands across the street from city hall. (Chavez, 10/11)
USA Today: Getting An Abortion While Trans Was Always Hard. In Texas, A New Law Puts Outsized Burdens On Them
The summer before Emmett Schelling's senior year of high school, he was sexually assaulted. Schelling, who was 17 years old at the time, found out in November of his senior year he was pregnant, around the time he was going to sign a letter of intent for college. Schelling, the executive director of the Transgender Education Network of Texas, is now a parent as a result. While he was not seeking an abortion at the time, the decision to become a parent was deeply personal, especially as a trans man in Texas, Schelling told USA TODAY. (Quarshie, 10/12)
The Atlantic: Plan C And The Secret Option For Mail-Order Abortion
So many states have restricted access to abortion so severely that people in large swaths of the country feel they have no options if they want to terminate a pregnancy. But technically, those who want an abortion still have options. It’s just that few have heard of them. Pregnant people in Texas, or in any other U.S. state, can visit an array of websites that will mail them two pills—mifepristone and misoprostol—that will induce a miscarriage when used in the first trimester of pregnancy and possibly even later. The so-called self-managed abortion is therefore an option at least six weeks further into a pregnancy than the controversial new Texas law’s six-week “heartbeat” cutoff for an abortion at a clinic. Though people in other states have several websites to choose from, Texans can visit Aid Access, a website that provides the pills for $105, or less based on income. Only 5 percent of Americans have heard of Aid Access, though, and only 13 percent have heard of Plan C, a website that provides information on different mail-order-abortion services by state, according to a new Atlantic/Leger poll. (Khazan, 10/12)
