Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Provision To Withhold Funding For Planned Parenthood Upheld In Court
The New York Times: Government Can Withhold Funds From Planned Parenthood, Appeals Court Rules
A federal appeals court on Friday allowed the Trump administration to continue withholding funding from Planned Parenthood as mandated in the tax and domestic policy bill President Trump signed in July. The provision requires the government to stop making Medicaid reimbursements to a subset of the nation’s largest abortion providers, in a manner so narrowly defined that Planned Parenthood claimed it had been deliberately singled out. The decision clears the way for the provision to stay in effect and sends the group’s lawsuit back to a lower court to untangle. (Montague, 12/12)
Minnesota Public Radio: Minnesota Planned Parenthood Faces Staff Complaints As Politics Add Financial Pressure
Nearly every week for three years, as the morning light crept over the horizon, Addie Evans climbed into her Subaru Outback, iced coffee in hand. The Cranberries played through the speakers as she turned up the volume and set off on the familiar drive north, leaving behind the rolling hills of Mankato for the Twin Cities metro. The Subaru was more than just Evans’ transportation. It also doubled as a mobile office, packed full of lists, a journal, her laptop, gloves, birth control pills, condoms and packages of misoprostol, a medication that can be used to end a pregnancy. (Zurek, 12/15)
More news on the Trump administration —
CNN: Democratic States Sue Trump Administration Over New $100,000 Fee For H-1B Visas
A coalition of blue states is suing the Trump administration over its fee of $100,000 for H-1B Visas, several Democratic attorneys general announced on Friday. The Trump administration announced in September that it would be implementing the fee for H-1B visas, citing that the program for the visas is overused. California Attorney General Rob Bonta, joined by Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell and New York Attorney General Letitia James and others, is leading the suit. (Gannon, 12/12)
The New York Times: Trump’s Diversity Rollback Ends Crucial Aid For Deafblind Children Like Annie Garner
A program for deafblind children helped 3-year-old Annie Garner, born with poor vision and no ears, learn to communicate. The Trump administration cut the program’s funding over diversity goals. (Rao, 12/15)
The Washington Post: What Rescheduling Of Marijuana Would Mean For Americans
As President Donald Trump prepares a historic relaxation of marijuana restrictions, Americans may wonder what it means for buying and using the country’s most popular illicit drug. The answer: Not that much. Reclassifying the drug from its status as the most tightly regulated Schedule I substance would not legalize or decriminalize cannabis. You won’t see it start to appear in pharmacies or liquor stores. (Hatzipanagos and Portnoy, 12/12)
The 19th: There’s A Testosterone Crisis, The FDA Says — For Cisgender Men
The problem, the experts said, is that nobody has been listening to men. For too long, hormone therapy has been inaccessible for cisgender men who need it — or so said clinicians, professors and a pharmaceutical CEO gathered this week by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Testosterone, a controlled substance, should be deregulated and patients should be able to access it at pharmacies without stigma, they said. Low testosterone in men is not just a cosmetic issue, they claimed — it’s an American health crisis. (Rummler, 12/12)
