Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
More Longer Looks: Abortion and Reproductive Health
USA Today: Jane Roe's Daughter On Her Mom's Views On Abortion, Religion, Sex
Throughout the last half century, no other controversial issue has touched, united and divided more families in the United States than abortion. But perhaps never as intimately as for McCorvey's eldest daughter, who grew up in the shadow of Jane Roe. Mills, the only child McCorvey would have a lifelong relationship with, described her mother as a tumultuous figure, first as an abortion rights activist and later a born-again Christian and anti-abortion crusader until her death in 2017. (Ruiz-Goiriena, 5/16)
Health News Florida: A Doctor Who Trained Before Roe V. Wade Recalls Treating Abortion Complications
Women who suffered from septic infections after risky attempts at abortions using sharp objects like knitting needles and coat hangers were common sights for doctors who learned medicine in the days before the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court case was decided in 1973, establishing the right to abortion in the United States. Sarasota OB-GYN Dr. Washington Hill remembers treating women who sought abortion through illegal or dangerous means in those days. He spoke with Health News Florida's Kerry Sheridan about learning medicine at that time, and what a new generation of doctors may need to expect if abortion is outlawed in some states. (Sheridan, 5/19)
Appleton Post-Crescent: In Pre-Roe Wisconsin, Death Certificates Hid Illegal Abortion Deaths
Anna Boddy first met Edward Werner when she went to his Jackson Street apartment in Milwaukee. It was Jan. 29, 1931. She was seeking an abortion. Werner, who was performing between 50 and 60 abortions in Milwaukee per week, had already lost his license for performing an "illegal operation" on a woman in Oshkosh, according to newspaper clippings from 1931. Boddy came back to Werner days later, this time "feeling desperately ill," the article says, and "Werner is said to have told her to remain at his apartment that she might be under his constant observation." Boddy died the next morning. She was 23 years old. (Mueller, 5/19)
Stat: Vague ‘Medical Emergency’ Exceptions In Abortion Laws Leave Pregnant People In Danger, Doctors Say
Kaitlyn was near the beginning of her second trimester last October when she boarded a plane from Texas to Kansas. On her return home a few days later, she was no longer pregnant, and the 34-year-old wanted to do little more than cry in her own bed. Being in public was a struggle, let alone standing in line and going through airport security. She had flown to Kansas for an abortion that was outlawed in her home state, though she and her doctor considered it medically appropriate. (Goldhill, 5/20)
CNN: 24 Hours In An America Where Roe V. Wade Barely Hangs On
Dr. Sarah Traxler's "Sioux Falls day" starts early. On this day, as it has been twice a month for the last seven years, Traxler is the only abortion doctor in South Dakota. By 6:30 a.m., she's at the airport in Minneapolis, headed to Sioux Falls. And by the day's end, she'll return. She makes this trek because no doctor in the state is willing or able to perform the procedure. (Jones and Lah, 5/19)
The Washington Post: The Potential End Of Roe Won't Stop This Abortion Provider-In-Training
My formal education from medical school about abortions was the basic information needed to pass the national board exams. Things like medications used, their side effects and up to what gestational age they are effective. We also were taught basic knowledge of the procedures — primarily first-trimester abortions. This was all theoretical. There was no hands-on training or education on advocacy. (Sturdivant Sani, 5/11)
The Washington Post: Glimpsing A Potential Post-Roe Future Through Texas Women's Stories
Kathaleen Pittman, director of Hope Medical Group for Women in Shreveport, La., is relishing what feels like a moment of quiet, despite the drilling outside her office. On this Friday afternoon in mid-March, workers are replacing some of the abortion clinic’s phones, leaving hers briefly disconnected. Since Texas implemented a near-total ban on abortions last fall, the lines have been flooded with calls. “Our phones are literally worn out,” Pittman says. (Novack, 5/15)
CNN: 'Pushed To The Margins': Why Some Activists And Lawmakers Say Abortion Bans Are A Form Of White Supremacy
The first time Kenya Martin got an abortion, she was a 19-year-old college student who felt she wasn't old enough or mature enough to raise a child. The second time, Martin was a 26-year-old single mom making $12 an hour as a bank teller, could barely afford childcare or health insurance and was in a custody battle with her daughter's father. Martin would later have four more abortions, each time knowing she did not want another child. Now Martin, who is Black, worries that other women, particularly women of color, won't have that choice if the Supreme Court affirms a leaked decision to overturn Roe v. Wade — the landmark ruling that legalized abortion in 1973. (Ellis, 5/18)
Also —
FiveThirtyEight: Better Birth Control Hasn’t Made Abortion Obsolete
There’s a reason why vasectomies are touted as one of the most reliable forms of birth control: They have a failure rate of less than 1 percent, as opposed to something like condoms, which has a failure rate closer to 13 percent. But because a 1 percent chance isn’t zero, some vasectomies fail every year, just like every other form of birth control. As a result, thousands of Americans who took steps to avoid getting pregnant will seek an abortion anyway. (Koerth and Thomson-DeVeaux, 5/19)
Stateline: Some States Already Are Targeting Birth Control
Last year, conservative Republicans in the Missouri legislature took a run at blocking Medicaid funding from going to Planned Parenthood, a frequent and prominent target of anti-abortion activists and politicians. But in the fine print of their measure, those Republicans revealed that their ambition wasn’t only to target a familiar abortion foe. They were going after specific forms of birth control as well, notably, emergency contraceptives, often sold under the brand name Plan B, and intrauterine devices, known as IUDs. (Ollove, 5/19)
Vox: 5 Ways Abortion Bans Could Hurt Women In The Workforce
Roe vs. Wade is all but certain to be overturned. ... That decision affects a woman’s likelihood to work at all, what type of job she takes, how much education she receives, how much money she makes, and even the hopes and dreams she has for herself. In turn, her career affects nearly all other aspects of her life, from her likelihood to live in poverty to her view of herself. (Molla, 5/19)
The Washington Post: Photos From The 1990s On Abortion Show How The Present Is Like The Past
Protests by abortion rights and antiabortion activists alike have sprouted up, including last weekend’s countrywide abortion rights demonstrations. The protests are reminiscent of those decades ago, when the abortion conversation was in full swing. (Handler and Dickerman, 5/17)
The Washington Post: Abortion In The Founders’ Era: Violent, Chaotic And Unregulated
Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. calls himself an originalist, someone who thinks the Constitution should be interpreted only by how it would have been understood by the Founders when they wrote it. So it’s no surprise that his draft opinion overturning Roe v. Wade is full of history. At least seven times, Alito cited Sir Matthew Hale, a 17th-century jurist who didn’t think marital rape was possible because wives were the property of their husbands, and who sentenced at least two women to die for witchcraft. Alito also cited a legal text from 1250 by Henry de Bracton that, in another section, says women are inferior to men, and that they sometimes give birth to literal monsters. (Brockell, 5/15)
The Conversation: What Ireland’s History With Abortion Might Teach Us About A Post-Roe America
If the U.S. Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision that legalized abortion in the U.S., the nation may find itself on a path similar to that trod by the Irish people from 1983 to 2018. ... Abortion was first prohibited in Ireland through what was called the Offenses Against the Person Act of 1861. That law became part of Irish law when Ireland gained independence from the U.K. in 1922. In the early 1980s, some anti-abortion Catholic activists noticed the liberalization of abortion laws in other Western democracies and worried the same might happen in Ireland. (Ely, 5/18)
