Parsing Policy: Why Hasn’t The Trump Administration Developed A Strong Plan To Attack The Opioid Crisis?; Changes To Title X Damage Low-Income Women

The Hill: Congress Should Condemn Trump's Shoddy Drug Strategy
House Democrats held a hearing this week to examine the Trump administration’s response to the overdose crisis and Trump’s new drug czar, Jim Carroll, was the administration’s witness. The Committee on Oversight and Reform hearing spotlighted the White House’s glaring failure to respond effectively to this crisis. President Trump has made many promises to end the overdose crisis, but two years in, his administration has failed to deliver. (Grant Smith, 3/8)

The Washington Post: New Rule Affecting Title X Would Hurt Millions Of Women
Having long ago made clear its intent to go after Planned Parenthood, the Trump administration has decided to proceed with a new rule that makes sweeping changes to the federal family planning program. The decision doesn’t come as much of a surprise, but that doesn’t make any more acceptable the harm that will be done if this misguided rule takes effect. Those who will be hurt are millions of women, many of them low-income, who will lose access to effective contraception and other reproductive health services that are critical to their well-being. (3/10)

The Wall Street Journal: America’s Extremist Abortion Industry
"Safe, legal and rare.” The phrase, which President Clinton coined during his 1996 re-election campaign, was meant to make abortion sound reasonable and even compassionate. It implied that abortion is inherently regrettable, and that legality and safety go hand in hand. A generation later, the party of “safe, legal and rare” has been captured by the loud voices and deep pockets of an extremist abortion industry that treats abortion as a moral good. Major Democratic politicians are even unwilling to protect the lives of babies who survive attempted abortions. (Meghan McCain and Ben Sasse, 3/10)

The New York Times: Vaping Is Big Tobacco’s Bait And Switch
I was 15 when I started smoking, and so were most of my friends. We smoked to rebel against our parents but also to identify with them — of course they smoked, even as they told us not to. We smoked because it was feminine and sexy, and also masculine and tough. Because celebrities did it, and they looked cool. Because the prissy kids didn’t do it, and we weren’t them. Because cigarettes were both forbidden and easy to get: ten quarters in a cigarette vending machine, which you could still find in most pizza joints and doughnut shops in suburban New Jersey in the early 1990s. (Jeneen Interlandi, 3/8)

The Wall Street Journal: There’s A Crisis At The Border, But A Wall Won’t Help
Is there a crisis on America’s southern border? Statistics out last week would seem to suggest so. According to U.S. Customs and Border Protection, more than 66,000 aliens were apprehended as they tried to sneak across the border last month, the highest February total since 2008 and the highest total in any month since 2009. Add in those deemed inadmissible at ports of entry, the total is more than 76,000. The problem isn’t gaps in physical barriers, but in legal ones. Loopholes in U.S. immigration law, combined with a weak asylum process, are creating incentives for adults to use children as pawns to get into the U.S. (David Inserra, 3/10)

NPR: Oklahoma Opioid Summit Looks For Ideas To Stop Fatal Overdoses
Oklahoma has been making progress in fighting the opioid epidemic. But there's still a lot of work to be done. While the death rate from prescription opioids is on the decline here, the number of opioid prescriptions written in the state continues to vastly outpace the national average. Also, deaths from heroin overdoses have been climbing — up by more than 50 percent between 2015 and 2016 — and that could be a byproduct of stricter state regulations that aim to curb opioid prescribing. (John Henning Schumann, 3/8)