Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Possession Of Abortion-Inducing Drugs Closer To Being A Crime In Louisiana
NBC News: Louisiana House Passes Bill To Make Abortion Pills A Controlled Dangerous Substance
The Louisiana House approved a bill Tuesday that would add two medications commonly used to induce abortions to the state’s list of controlled dangerous substances, making possession of the drugs without valid prescriptions a crime punishable by fines, jail time or both. The measure, which has drawn support from anti-abortion groups and alarm from medical professionals and reproductive rights advocates, would add the medications mifepristone and misoprostol to Schedule IV of the state’s Uniform Controlled Dangerous Substances Law. (Silva, Parra and Obregon, 5/21)
The Hill: Kamala Harris And Others React To Louisiana House Criminalizing Abortion Pills
Hours after the Louisiana House voted Tuesday to criminalize the possession of mifepristone and misoprostol without a prescription, lawmakers reacted to the vote, some expressing anger while others celebrated the legislation. The unprecedented legislation is the first time a state has declared abortion drugs as controlled substances. Vice President Kamala Harris posted on social media platform X responding to the vote, saying it’s “absolutely unconscionable.” (Irwin, 5/21)
Donald Trump backtracks on banning birth control —
The Washington Post: Trump Backtracks After Suggesting He’s Open To States Restricting Birth Control Access
Former president Donald Trump declared on Tuesday that he did not support a ban on birth control, despite his responses in a television interview earlier in the day that suggested he was open to states restricting access to contraceptives. “I HAVE NEVER, AND WILL NEVER ADVOCATE IMPOSING RESTRICTIONS ON BIRTH CONTROL, or other contraceptives,” Trump wrote on his social media platform. His post was a reversal of comments he made in an interview with KDKA News in Pittsburgh when he was asked whether he supported any restrictions on a person’s right to contraception. (Wang, 5/21)
More abortion news —
Reuters: NY Top Court Rejects Church Challenge To Abortion Coverage Law
New York's highest court on Tuesday ruled that employers' health insurance plans have to cover medically necessary abortions, rejecting a lawsuit by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany claiming that the law's exemption for religious employers was too narrow. The New York Court of Appeals found that the rule, passed in 2017 by the state's Department of Financial Services (DFS), did not violate religious employers' freedom because both the rule and its religious exemption were neutral and generally applicable to all employers. (Pierson, 5/22)
Politico: California Pushes Through Gavin Newsom’s Bill Helping Arizona Abortion-Seekers
A California bill aiming to help Arizona abortion seekers by allowing doctors from that state to operate across the border has landed on Gov. Gavin Newson’s desk, just a month after he first floated the proposal. Once signed, Senate Bill 233 would offer an expedited pathway for licensed doctors in Arizona to get their credentials in California, with a nonprofit offering to pay the fees to do so. (Bluth, 5/21)
Reuters: Kansas Abortion Providers Seek To Block Law Requiring Them To Report Patients' Reasons
Abortion providers in Kansas are asking a state court to block a new law requiring them to report patients' reasons for getting abortions to state authorities. In a motion filed late on Monday in Johnson County Civil Court, the providers said the law, passed by the state's Republican legislature in April over the veto of its Democratic governor and set to take effect in July, would violate their right to free speech under the U.S. Constitution and their patients' right to personal autonomy. (Pierson, 5/21)
The Washington Post: DOJ Sues Antiabortion Groups, Says Patients Were Blocked At Ohio Clinics
The Justice Department on Monday filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against two antiabortion groups and seven protesters it said wrongfully blocked patients’ access to medical care by preventing them from exiting their vehicles, filling waiting rooms and surrounding Ohio abortion clinics during 2021 protests. Protesters organized by the nonprofit Citizens for a Pro-Life Society and Red Rose Rescue, an affiliated group, occupied the waiting room of the Northeast Ohio Women’s Center on June 4, 2021, according to the lawsuit. The groups allegedly encouraged patients to not have abortions, then filled the waiting room and refused to leave, drawing a police response. The next day, protesters surrounded the Bedford Heights Surgery Center, lay in front of the clinic’s entrance and stood in front of a patient’s car door to prevent them from exiting, the lawsuit alleged. (Wu, 5/21)
The 19th: Few Places Were Hit Harder By The End Of Roe Than The Rio Grande Valley
Before Roe v. Wade fell, McAllen had been home to the last abortion clinic in Texas’s Rio Grande Valley, and Becky, a lifelong Texan and young college student, knew the place by sight. It was where the other girls at school used to go whenever they needed help, just by city hall, next to a church, and a short drive from an H-E-B supermarket. (Luthra, 5/21)
San Francisco Chronicle: More Male Candidates Are Talking About Abortion Rights Than Ever
The 2024 election will be the first presidential contest waged since the fall of Roe v. Wade, and it means abortion access is suddenly being championed on a major scale by the group that still makes up a majority of lawmakers in America: men. The Democratic Party as a whole has long supported abortion rights. But since the Supreme Court’s 2022 decision overturning the constitutional right to obtain an abortion, Democratic men ... have made access to abortion one of their top issues on the campaign trail. (Stein, 5/21)
