Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Missouri Bill Would Strongly Restrict Abortions, Including Pill-Based
St. Louis Public Radio: Missouri House Passes Anti-Abortion Bill
The Missouri House has passed a bill containing multiple anti-abortion measures, including a provision that makes it a felony to distribute or administer abortion-inducing drugs in a way that violates state or federal law. Members of the House approved the bill Wednesday with a vote of 91-37. It now goes to the Senate, with six weeks left in the 2022 legislative session before adjournment on May 13. "I think the facts stand strong and well with our record here, we protect the unborn life," said the bill's sponsor, Rep. Hannah Kelly, R-Mountain Grove, before it went to a vote. No other legislator spoke on the bill before it passed. (Kellogg, 4/6)
St. Louis Public Radio: Midwest Access Coalition Brings Abortion Seekers To Illinois
A wave of anti-abortion restrictions in Missouri and other states is increasingly bringing patients seeking the procedure to Illinois — and to “practical abortion funds” like the Midwest Access Coalition. Founded in 2015, the coalition connects patients seeking abortions with the resources to get them to clinics, handling the logistics of the trip and supplying money for lodging, child care and food during their stay. Diana Parker-Kafka, the Chicago-based coalition’s executive director, says the group’s activities ramped up significantly in the past year, when it assisted more than 800 people traveling to the Midwest for abortions. Now, the group is fielding 120 callers every month. (Wicentowski, 4/6)
And more abortion news from Alaska, Iowa, and Nebraska —
Anchorage Daily News: Alaska House Votes To Defund Medicaid Abortion Services Despite Court Rulings Requiring It
Defying court rulings, the Alaska House of Representatives voted 21-18 on Wednesday to cut Alaska’s Medicaid budget by $350,000 in an attempt to eliminate state funding for abortion services. The vote is the latest in a yearslong series of attempts by Alaska legislators to cancel public funding for abortion services. Prior votes have had little effect. The state has shifted Medicaid funding from other sources and continued to provide abortions. In 2021, according to the latest available figures, Medicaid funded 537 of 1,226 abortions in Alaska. (Brooks, 4/6)
Iowa Public Radio: Iowa Senate Bill Would Fund Anti-Abortion Pregnancy Centers And More Medicaid Coverage Post-Childbirth
The Iowa Senate voted Tuesday to give $1 million of state money to anti-abortion pregnancy centers and voted to expand Medicaid coverage for Iowans up to a year after they give birth. The $1 million would go to a nonprofit to administer payments to centers that counsel people to choose childbirth instead of abortion. Current law provides 60 days of health insurance coverage through Medicaid after childbirth. The bill passed Tuesday would extend that to a year after childbirth, costing the state an additional $5.6 million in the first year. Bill sponsor Sen. Mark Costello, R-Imogene, called it the More Options for Maternal Support bill, or “MOMS” bill. He said he thought it would get more bipartisan support because he said the bill does not seek to restrict abortion. (Sostaric, 4/6)
AP: Nebraska Weighs Bill To Ban Abortion If Court Overturns Roe
Nebraska would immediately ban abortions if the U.S. Supreme Court ever overturns its 1973 decision to legalize the procedure under a bill that sharply divided lawmakers on Wednesday. Lawmakers remained stuck on the measure and weren’t expected to take the first of three required votes on it until later Wednesday evening. If it passes, Nebraska would become the 14th state nationally to enact a so-called trigger law. (Schulte, 4/6)
Also —
NPR: Anti-Abortion Group Claims It Took 115 Fetuses From A Medical Waste Truck
An anti-abortion group that is facing previous federal charges said it took 115 fetuses from a medical waste company and buried 110 of them at an undisclosed location. Washington, D.C., police, which originally said it found five fetuses in one of the group members' apartments, is continuing to investigate the case. At a news conference Tuesday, two members of Progressive Anti-Abortion Uprising, Terrisa Bukovinac and Lauren Handy, said they got the fetal remains from a medical waste company employee who gave them the box from his truck. (Shivaram, 4/6)
Reveal: Mastermind Of The Texas ‘Heartbeat’ Statute Has A Radical Mission To Reshape American Law
When conservative legal provocateur Jonathan Mitchell published his 2018 law review article laying the groundwork for Texas to ban most abortions, some of the ideas he outlined were so far-fetched that they read more like thought experiments than legitimate legal theories. One was that state legislatures could give private individuals, rather than government agencies, the right to enforce abortion restrictions and other controversial statutes – a “bounty hunter”-type mechanism he claimed could make such laws all but impossible to challenge through the usual legal processes. (Littlefield, 4/5)
Bay Area News Group: Walnut Creek Backs Planned Parenthood With Protest Buffers
After months of fine-tuning the legal details, Walnut Creek will begin prohibiting abortion protesters from getting within eight feet of people entering or leaving the city’s Planned Parenthood clinic without their consent. The City Council unanimously voted Tuesday night to establish the eight-foot buffer within 100 feet of the Oakland Boulevard clinic, where crowds occasionally descend on the narrow sidewalk in front to protest. The council was ready to act last month but held off after the city attorney said more time is needed to research how much noise should be considered “excessive” enough at demonstrations to trigger enforcement. (Mukherjee, 4/6)
In other news —
The 19th: Sexual Assault Survivors Are Often Charged Hundreds Of Dollars For Rape Kits
$347. That was the average out-of-pocket cost for sexual assault survivors who received forensic exam services as part of a rape kit from 2016 to 2018, the Kaiser Family Foundation found. Under federal law, they weren’t supposed to pay anything at all. The Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) — reauthorized last month as part of Congress’ omnibus spending bill — requires states to bear full out-of-pocket costs of forensic medical exams to receive federal funds for law enforcement agencies, courts and victim services. Even if victims are fully reimbursed later, states that allow hospitals to charge patients are still violating the requirements laid out for them by the Justice Department to access those funds. (Rummler, 4/6)
