Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Ohio Abortion Law Upheld By Appellate Court
CNN: Ohio Abortion Law: Appeals Court Upholds Down Syndrome Abortion Law In Case With Supreme Court Implications
A US appellate court decision on Tuesday upholding an Ohio law that prohibits abortions because of fetal Down syndrome evades major Supreme Court precedent and is certain to reverberate in cases nationwide. The decision by a 9-7 vote implicitly challenges Supreme Court decisions dating to 1973 that protect the abortion choice in the early weeks of a pregnancy and could open up a new front in the enduring battle over a woman's constitutional right to end a pregnancy. (Biskupic, 4/13)
KHN: Syphilis Cases In California Drive A Record-Setting Year For STDs Nationwide
In certain circles of San Francisco, a case of syphilis can be as common and casual as the flu, to the point where Billy Lemon can’t even remember how many times he’s had it. “Three or four? Five times in my life?” he struggles to recall. “It does not seem like a big deal.” At the time, about a decade ago, Lemon went on frequent methamphetamine binges, kicking his libido into overdrive and silencing the voice in his head that said condoms would be a wise choice at a raging sex party. (Dembosky, 4/13)
The Baltimore Sun: A Record Number Of Fatal Overdoses Ravaged Maryland In 2020, ‘Exacerbated’ By COVID Pandemic, Report Shows
More than 2,700 people in Maryland died from drug and alcohol overdoses last year, the most ever recorded in a single year as fatalities jumped during the heart of the coronavirus pandemic, according to a new state report. A report released Tuesday by Maryland’s Opioid Operational Command Center shows that 2,773 people died to drug and alcohol overdoses, 394 more than in 2019 and 376 more than the previous record set in 2018, when 2,406 people died from overdoses. (Davis, 4/13)
The Washington Post: A Poultry Plant, Years Of Groundwater Contamination And, Finally, A Court Settlement
Even with the stomach cramps, nausea and hurried trips to the bathroom several times a day, Gary Cuppels never suspected his tap water. He kept drinking it, brushing his teeth with it and bathing in it. Not until he came home one night and found a large pallet of water bottles on his porch did Cuppels start to worry. A note from his “friends at Mountaire,” the chicken processing plant up the road in rural Delaware, said he should drink the bottled water instead of the groundwater his deep well pulled from the northern Chesapeake aquifer. That was in 2017. Investigators would later find that abnormally high level of nitrogen produced by the plant had long made the drinking supply dangerous, possibly even deadly. (Fears, 4/13)
