Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Perspectives: Congress Needs To Change Policies Around Birth Control Inequities; Isn't Celebrating Late-Term Abortions Dehumanizing?
The Hill: We're Calling On The New Congress To Support Reproductive Health Services
We call upon Congress to seize opportunities to adopt policies and public funding to expand information, access and opportunity to serve all people. We know it won’t be easy. The current administration continues to propagate policy initiatives that are designed to strip away the protections and funding that have helped millions of women — particularly those most in need — for decades. (Ginny Ehrlich, 2/2)
The Washington Post: To Understand What A Weird, Wicked World We Live In, Look At These Abortion Laws
C.S. Lewis was only partly right when he wrote: The greatest evil . . . is conceived and ordered (moved, seconded, carried and minuted) in clean, carpeted, warmed and well-lighted offices, by quiet men with white collars and cut fingernails and smooth-shaven cheeks who do not need to raise their voice. Lewis, perhaps, couldn’t have envisioned the day when a law allowing abortion up to the moment of birth would receive a standing ovation, as occurred last month with New York’s passage of the absurdly named “Reproductive Health Act.” (Kathleen Parker, 2/1)
The Wall Street Journal: Abortion Law Is Already Extreme
A legislative effort to loosen restrictions on late-term abortion died last week in the Virginia General Assembly. The problem was that Gov. Ralph Northam was a little too honest about what the bill would mean. When an interviewer asked him what would happen to a baby born alive during a third-trimester abortion, the governor—who also works as a pediatric neurologist—said calmly: “If a mother is in labor, I can tell you exactly what would happen. The infant would be delivered. The infant would be kept comfortable. The infant would be resuscitated if that’s what the mother and the family desired, and then a discussion would ensue between the physicians and the mother.” (Ann McElhinney and Phelim McAleer, 2/3)
