Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Missouri Attorney General, Who Is Against Abortion Rights, Heads To FBI
NPR: Headed To The FBI, Missouri's Andrew Bailey Opposed Abortion, Backed Trump
In under three years, Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey built a track record for using his office to oppose abortion even though voters supported it, filing lawsuits on culture-war issues and defending Donald Trump. Bailey was named a couple weeks ago to be a co-deputy director at the FBI and is expected to take office Monday. "My life has been defined by a call to service, and I am once again answering that call, this time at the national level," he said in accepting the post. He resigns his state position effective Monday. (Rosenbaum, 9/5)
The Washington Post: Justice Amy Coney Barrett Defends Supreme Court’s Decision To Overturn Roe
Justice Amy Coney Barrett defends her vote that helped the Supreme Court overturn the right to abortion in 2022, writing in a new memoir that the idea that the Constitution guarantees such access is not deeply rooted in American history. She says that the Supreme Court’s 1973 decision to establish a constitutional right to abortion in Roe v. Wade went against the will of many Americans and set in motion five decades of conflict over an issue that should have been rightly decided by voters — not judges. (Jouvenal, 9/7)
More abortion news —
Slate: Texas’ New Abortion Bounty Law Has A Fatal Flaw.
There is no reason to think H.B. 7 will solve a complex set of cross-border legal issues. Shield doctors assume that their actions are legal because they are located in states where abortion is protected as a right. Ban states argue that these same actions are crimes because the abortions take place within their borders. Courts will have to settle which state’s law will apply, and how shield laws can be squared with abortion bans. These conflicts will ultimately end up in federal court, and the outcome is uncertain. Nothing in H.B. 7 changes that. (Ziegler, 9/5)
Newsweek: Extreme Morning Sickness Leading Women To Consider Abortion, Study Finds
The staggering toll of hyperemesis gravidarum—an extreme form of morning sickness—on pregnant women has been revealed by a new study, with more than half of subjects saying they had considered ending their pregnancy because of the condition. The research, published in the journal PLOS ONE, surveyed 289 Australian women and found that 54 percent had contemplated termination due to unrelenting nausea and vomiting, while 90 percent reported they had thought about avoiding future pregnancies altogether. (Gray, 9/3)
Slate: Why Abortion Providers Are The Best Place For Painless IUD Placements.
If you want an IUD but are afraid of the pain, the cheat code is to call up your local abortion provider. These findings coincide with growing demand from patients for better pain management for IUDs and other in-office gynecological procedures, like endometrial biopsies and uterine aspirations. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists seemed to respond this spring by issuing updated guidelines stating pain management should be offered—even though it “may be perceived by health care professionals as unnecessary.” Also, it told clinicians to take a collaborative, patient-centered approach in deciding the direction of care. (Boden, 9/7)
In other reproductive health news —
MedPage Today: Hysterectomy, Ovaries Removal Linked To Stroke Risk
Hysterectomy and/or bilateral oophorectomy were associated with an increased risk of stroke, according to a meta-analysis. Using data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) and 15 other studies, hysterectomy was shown to be associated with a higher stroke risk compared with no hysterectomy (HR 1.09, 95% CI 1.04-1.15, P=0.001), reported Nan Wu, MD, of Chongqing General Hospital and Chongqing University in China, and colleagues. (Bassett, 9/4)
Stat: Post-Tubal Ligation Syndrome: Is Sterilization Reversal The Answer?
It was her second time trying to reverse what was supposed to be irreversible. The first time, Maranda Bordelon saved up for the $1,500 deposit, then booked a surgery date a few months out, so she’d have time to cobble together the remaining $4,500 she’d need to undo her sterilization. But just before her appointment, her parents’ house burned down, and she couldn’t stomach not being there to help. The deposit was non-refundable. That was in 2020. This time, instead of seeing that same surgeon, a two-and-a-half-hour drive from her home in Marksville, La., she’d picked a clinic six states and nearly a thousand miles away. (Boodman, 9/8)
Medical Xpress: Storing Breast Milk For Specific Times Of Day Could Support Babies' Circadian Rhythm
Breast milk is the first "super food" for many babies. Full of vitamins, minerals, and other bioactive compounds, it helps build the young immune system and is widely considered the optimal source of infant nutrition. Not all mothers, however, have the opportunity to directly breastfeed multiple times during the day and night, and might use expressed milk stored for later. (9/5)
Bloomberg: The Implants Were Supposed to Dissolve. They Didn’t
In the two years following her breast cancer surgery, not a day went by when Mary Munney Griffiths wasn’t in pain. It was different from the burning she felt in her chest during eight weeks of radiation. This was a new sharp, shooting sensation that woke her up at night and stopped her cold in the grocery store. She worried her cancer had returned, but tests said otherwise. When she finally got a surgeon to operate two years later, the doctor removed 24 plastic shards from her breast. (Edney and Meghjani, 9/3)
