Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Kansas Abortion Recount Unlikely To Surmount 165,000-Vote Difference
AP: Kansas To Recount Abortion Vote By Hand, Despite Big Margin
Kansas’ elections director says the state will go along with a request for a hand recount of votes from every county after last week’s decisive statewide vote affirming abortion rights, even though there was a 165,000-vote difference and a recount won’t change the result. (Hanna, 8/12)
The Kansas City Star: Activist Offers To Pay For Kansas' Recount Of Abortion Vote
A credit card belonging to the Kansas Republican Assembly was provided to advance a statewide recount of the abortion amendment vote expected to cost more than $229,000, said Mark Gietzen, the group’s president and a strident anti-abortion activist. The amendment, called Value Them Both, would have stripped abortion rights from the Kansas Constitution. Instead the measure suffered a landslide 59% to 41% defeat, with 165,000 more voters rejecting the proposal than supporting it. (Shorman and Swain, 8/14)
In other election news —
The New York Times: Why Abortion Has Become A Centerpiece Of Democratic TV Ads In 2022
All across America, Democrats are using abortion as a powerful cudgel in their 2022 television campaigns, paying for an onslaught of ads in House, Senate and governor’s races that show how swiftly abortion politics have shifted since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in late June. (Goldmacher and Glueck, 8/14)
Atlanta Journal-Constitution: The Jolt: Doctors At Democratic Event Slam New Abortion Law: ‘A Crime Against Humanity’
At a roundtable sponsored by the Democratic Party of Georgia Thursday night, OB-GYNs talked the confusion the law has caused for patients and doctors, as well as the limits the law creates for women experiencing miscarriages or high-risk pregnancies. (Murphy and Bluestein, 8/12)
And the 2022 "Hawaii Physician of the Year" wins the Democratic primary for governor —
AP: Physician Green Wins Hawaii Democratic Primary For Governor
For their 16th wedding anniversary, Democrats in Hawaii gifted Josh Green and his wife, Jaime, a comfortable margin of victory in the gubernatorial primary Saturday. Green, the state’s current lieutenant governor, handily defeated former first lady Vicky Cayetano and Kaiali’I Kahele, who decided to seek the governor’s office instead of a second term in the U.S. House. ... Green was a state senator and representative before serving as lieutenant governor. He was a doctor in rural areas on the Big Island before entering politics. He has continued working part time as a physician while in the state Legislature and as lieutenant governor. (McAvoy, 8/14)
