Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Patchwork Of State Abortion Laws Gets Even More Complex After Elections
The New York Times: How Ballot Measures Will Change Abortion Access
The 2024 election broke a ballot measure winning streak for abortion rights advocates. Voters in seven states, including Republican-led ones, had previously sided with abortion rights in every contest since the Supreme Court overturned Roe in 2022. Advocates for abortion rights caution that opportunities to protect those rights through ballot measures may be dwindling. Most remaining states with abortion bans do not allow citizen-initiated measures to be placed on the ballot, and their Republican leaders are unlikely to put the issue to voters. (McCann and Schoenfeld Walker, 11/6)
The Washington Post: For Abortion Ballot Measures, Strong Success Or Guarded Victory?
Both supporters and opponents of abortion rights are calling Tuesday’s election historic, but the lasting impact on the national landscape won’t be clear until after president-elect Donald Trump takes office in January. Supporters scored notable victories, passing ballot measures to enshrine abortion rights or protect reproductive rights in seven states’ constitutions, including Montana, Arizona, Nevada and deeply conservative Missouri. The outcome in Missouri overturned a total ban for the first time anywhere in the country and could affect more than 1.2 million women of reproductive age. Yet those wins could be blunted by the next Trump administration’s actions or policies. (Hennessy-Fiske, Gowen, Rozsa and Gilbert, 11/6)
Politico: Anti-Abortion Forces Broke The Left's Post-Roe Winning Streak, But 7 More States Enacted Protections
Many of the measures won — and in Florida, came close to winning — despite widespread efforts by GOP state officials, Republican-appointed judges and anti-abortion advocacy groups to prevent them from passing or from reaching the ballot, using legislation, lawsuits and public pressure campaigns. But the losses in GOP-controlled states highlighted the left’s struggle to keep voters’ focus on the issue as well as the right’s evolving strategies to kneecap the ballot measure process. And abortion opponents have vowed to keep fighting initiatives that have already passed, with plans to file legal challenges and, should those fail, pursue additional ballot measures to wind back the clock. (Ollstein, 11/6)
KFF Health News: 7 Of 10 States Backed Abortion Rights. But Little To Change Yet
Voters backed abortion rights in seven of the 10 states where the issue appeared on ballots Tuesday — at first glance, seemingly reshaping the nation’s patchwork of abortion rules. Colorado, Maryland, Montana, and New York — states where abortions are already permitted at least until fetal viability — all will add abortion protections to their state constitutions. Nevada voters also favored protections and can enshrine them by passing the measure again in the next general election. (Sable-Smith, 11/6)
Massachusetts and California vow to defend abortion rights —
The Boston Globe: Gov. Maura Healey Promises State Will Protect Women’s Rights After Trump Election Victory
Governor Maura Healey vowed Wednesday that Massachusetts will continue to protect women’s rights and other priorities after Donald Trump’s election victory Tuesday night, giving the Republican a second term to advance his political agenda. During an afternoon news briefing, Healey said that Massachusetts is “a place where we will always stand up for people’s rights and freedoms, where women will have control over their own health care decisions, and where every person is respected, valued, and heard, whoever you are, wherever you were born, whoever you love.” (Andersen, 11/6)
Politico: Gavin Newsom Vows California Will ‘Defend Our Constitution’ In Wake Of Trump Win
California Gov. Gavin Newsom gave his first statement today on the presidential election results, echoing the defiant remarks of other leading Democrats across the state, eager to again cast themselves as a counterweight to the next Trump administration. Like Sen.-elect Adam Schiff, Newsom did not mention Donald Trump by name but echoed Vice President Kamala Harris who in her concession speech vowed to continue the “fight for freedom.” (Holden, 11/6)
KFF Health News: Prepared For A Trump Win, California’s Attorney General Is Ready To Fight
If President-elect Donald Trump and a Republican Senate try to roll back reproductive health rights or pursue a widely prophesied national abortion ban, California Attorney General Rob Bonta is poised to challenge him. Two years ago, Bonta, a Democrat who heads the state justice department, directed his staff to draft legal analyses against a possible national abortion ban after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned 50 years of abortion protections under Roe v. Wade. Bonta said they thought through arguments, even going so far as to decide in which court they would file suit. (Castle Work, 11/6)
