Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
NC Governor Sets Up Battle Over 'Dressed Up' Abortion Ban
Politico: 12-Week Abortion Ban Will Do Great Harm, North Carolina's Governor Says
Gov. Roy Cooper said Sunday that the proposed 12-week abortion ban in his state would largely put an end to abortion in North Carolina. The legislation, approved last week and sent to Cooper, would restrict abortion to within the first 12 weeks of pregnancy (down from 20) but also apply other restrictions as well. “They’ve dressed this up as a 12-week ban, but it’s really not,” Cooper, a Democrat, told host Margaret Brennan on CBS’ “Face the Nation.” (Cohen, 5/7)
In other abortion news —
The 19th: Abortion In Florida: Campaign To Get 2024 Ballot Measure Set To Take Off
A coalition of abortion rights advocates in Florida is set to push a ballot measure that would enshrine abortion protections into the state’s constitution, with the launch of a public campaign to get the issue on the Florida 2024 ballot expected next week. The coalition has already filed necessary paperwork with the state to begin collecting signatures and fundraising for the effort, said Nikki Fried, the chair of the Florida Democratic Party, who first pitched the ballot measure last August. (Barclay, 5/5)
The Washington Post: A GOP Nebraska Lawmaker Chose His Voters Over His Party With Abortion Vote
In the days since state Sen. Merv Riepe cast the lone vote that blocked a near-total abortion ban in his conservative state, he’s faced protests at his office, the cold shoulder from irate colleagues and calls for his resignation. A stranger left an angry note inside his home mailbox. Yet the 80-year-old Republican has also raked in accolades, becoming an unlikely hero for those fighting to protect abortion access in Nebraska and around the country in the year since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. Abortion advocates wept in the Capitol after Riepe’s April 27 vote. A downtown Omaha novelty store is now selling blue T-shirts and tank tops that say “Hot Merv Summer” in bold white type. (Itkowitz and Rodriguez, 5/7)
The New York Times: The Women Blocking South Carolina’s Near-Total Abortion Ban
When the United States Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last summer, advocates on either side presumed that the country would divide along the bright color lines: red states completely banning abortion, blue states protecting it. That prediction failed to anticipate the Sister Senators. The Sisters, as they call themselves, are the women in the South Carolina State Senate — the only women, three Republicans, one Independent and one Democrat, in a legislature that ranks 47th among states in the proportion of women. As a block, they are refusing to allow the legislature to pass a near-total ban on abortion, despite a Republican supermajority. (Zernike, 5/7)
KFF Health News: In Idaho, Taking A Minor Out Of State For An Abortion Is Now A Crime: ‘Abortion Trafficking’
Mackenzie Davidson grew up in a Mormon household and sheepishly admits she knew little about pregnancy. “This is embarrassing,” she said, sitting outside a café along a street thronged with students in this college town. “But I didn’t know that you had to have sex to have kids until I was 13 or 14.”She’s a writer for the University of Idaho student newspaper, The Argonaut, and was asked recently to report on a new law. (Varney, 5/8)
Southern Poverty Law Center: Supreme Court’s Abortion Ruling Disproportionately Affects Black People With Low Incomes In The Deep South
The burden falls most heavily on economically vulnerable, non-Latinx Black people, who nationwide have a maternal mortality rate three times that of white people. In 2019, Black patients accounted for over 38% of U.S. abortions, even though Black people represent only about 12% of the U.S. population. In a Guttmacher Institute survey of more than 6,600 individuals who obtained an abortion at a health care facility in the U.S. from June 2021 to June 2022, three-quarters of respondents had incomes below 200% of the federal poverty line. (Sonnenberg, 5/5)
