Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Minnesota To Guarantee Abortion Rights: Bill Heads To Governor
Minnesota Public Radio: Minnesota Senate Votes To Guarantee Abortion Rights, Sends Bill To Governor
A measure guaranteeing the right to an abortion — and other reproductive health care — is on its way to the governor’s desk for a signature after the Minnesota Senate voted 34-33 to pass it on early Saturday morning. (Ferguson, 1/28)
AP: Ohio City Rewrites Abortion Ban, Advocacy Groups End Lawsuit
Groups advocating for professional social workers and abortion rights said they have succeeded in forcing a small Ohio city to significantly narrow its ban on conducting or recommending abortions and so have ended their legal challenge. The lawsuit by the National Association of Social Workers and the Abortion Fund of Ohio argued that the law, passed in May 2021, represented an “extraordinarily broad” infringement on the constitutional rights of due process and free speech. The groups’ lawyers at the ACLU of Ohio and Democracy Forward further alleged the ban violated Ohio’s home-rule provisions. The city of Lebanon, in southwest Ohio, opted to revise the law rather than defend it in court. Enforcement had been placed on hold while that work took place. (Smyth, 1/27)
Stateline: GOP Leaders In Some States Want To Add Abortion Ban Exceptions
With Tennessee’s so-called trigger law already on the books, the state enacted its abortion ban almost immediately after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade in June. Yet even as anti-abortion legislators and advocates celebrated, they considered how much further they could go — perhaps by barring Tennesseans from seeking abortions in other states, or by restricting contraception. (Elliot, 1/27)
Stat: 'A Classic Case': A Legal Expert On Why Lawsuits Challenging Abortion Pill Restrictions May Succeed
A pair of lawsuits was filed last week challenging restrictions on access to abortion pills in two states, a development that opens a new front in the highly politicized battle over the medicine. (Silverman, 1/30)
KHN: Part I: The State Of The Abortion Debate 50 Years After ‘Roe’
The abortion debate has changed dramatically in the seven months since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and its nationwide right to abortion. Nearly half the states have banned or restricted the procedure, even though the public, at the ballot box, continues to show support for abortion rights. (1/26)
KHN: Part II: The State Of The Abortion Debate 50 Years After ‘Roe’
The abortion debate has changed dramatically in the seven months since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and its nationwide right to abortion. Nearly half the states have banned or restricted the procedure, even though the public, at the ballot box, continues to show support for abortion rights. (1/27)
On pregnancy and parenthood —
The Boston Globe: It’s Hard To Be A New Mom. For Some, A Lonely Struggle Can Spiral Into Mental Illness
When Melissa Anne DuBois gave birth to her first child 10 years ago, she was thrilled to finally take a baby into her arms after three miscarriages. But soon disturbing thoughts invaded her mind, as a parent’s ordinary fears morphed into nightmare visions. A worry about accidentally drowning the baby in the bathtub became a vision of holding him under the water and watching him die. The normal fear of dropping the baby turned into a vivid image of herself hurling her son down the stairs to his death. (Freyer and Lazar, 1/28)
North Carolina Health News: Two Laws Provide Greater Accommodations For Pregnant And Nursing Workers
Within months of returning to work after giving birth in July, Paula Harwick said she felt her breast milk supply start to dry up. Harwick said that was because she had no time to pump throughout her day as a high school Spanish teacher in Durham. (Crumpler, 1/30)
KHN: A Baby Spent 36 Days In An In-Network NICU. Why Did The Hospital Next Door Send A Bill?
Brenna Kearney was seven months pregnant in December 2019 when she experienced what she thought were bad flu symptoms. Her husband, Casey Trumble, drove her from their Chicago home to her OB-GYN’s office at Northwestern Medicine Prentice Women’s Hospital downtown. With suddenly elevated blood pressure and protein in her urine, she was diagnosed with preeclampsia, a potentially fatal but treatable pregnancy complication. Doctors admitted her to the hospital, saying she could expect to stay up to six weeks and have an induced delivery. (Meyer, 1/30)
AP: Baby Girl Found Abandoned In Florida An Hour After Birth
Florida authorities found a newborn girl wrapped in a blanket and still attached to a placenta on a hill outside a trailer park early Saturday morning. Polk County deputies responding to a call about a baby crying outside near Mulberry, east of Tampa, found the girl about an hour after she was born, the sheriff’s office said in a news release. The temperature was in the low 50s (about 11 degrees Celsius). (1/29)
