Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Poll: 60% Say Right To Abortion Should Be Continued
The Washington Post: Post-ABC Poll: Abortion Rights Have Broad Support As Supreme Court Weighs Texas, Mississippi Laws
The lopsided support for maintaining abortion rights protections comes as the court considers cases challenging its long-term precedents, including Dec. 1 arguments over a Mississippi law banning abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy. The Post-ABC poll finds 27 percent of Americans say the court should overturn Roe, while 60 percent say it should be upheld, attitudes that are consistent in polls dating to 2005. More broadly, three-quarters of Americans say abortion access should be left to women and their doctors, while 20 percent say they should be regulated by law. (Clement, Bishop and Barnes, 11/16)
KHN: California Plans For A Post-Roe World As Abortion Access Shrinks Elsewhere
With access to abortion at stake across America, California is preparing to become the nation’s abortion provider. Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom and legislative leaders have asked a group of reproductive health experts to propose policies to bolster the state’s abortion infrastructure and ready it for more patients. Lawmakers plan to begin debating the ideas when they reconvene in January. Abortion clinics are already girding themselves for a surge in demand. (Bluth, 11/17)
KHN: Texas Abortion Law Harms Survivors Of Rape And Incest, Activists Say
The Safe Alliance in Austin, Texas, helps survivors of child abuse, sexual assault and domestic violence. Before Texas’ new abortion law took effect, the organization counseled a 12-year-old who had been repeatedly raped by her father. Piper Stege Nelson, chief public strategies officer for the Safe Alliance, said the girl’s father didn’t let her leave the house. “She got pregnant,” Nelson said. “She had no idea about anything about her body. She certainly didn’t know that she was pregnant.” The girl eventually got help, but if this had happened after Sept. 1, when the state law took effect, her options would have been severely curtailed, Nelson said. (Lopez, 11/17)
ABC News: Catholic Bishops Debate Denying Communion To Biden, Other Pro-Abortion Rights Politicians
The question of whether President Joe Biden and other Catholic politicians who publicly support abortion rights should receive Holy Communion is at the center of a controversial draft document the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops is expected to vote on Wednesday. The vote is the culmination of year-long debate between America’s largely conservative bishops and the Vatican about whether punitive measures should be taken against public officials who contradict the church’s teaching on abortion. (Vann, 11/17)
