Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Senate Dems Urge Mifepristone Maker To Update Label To Include Miscarriage Use
The Hill: Senate Democrats Press Maker Of Abortion Pill To Add Miscarriage Management To Label
A group of Senate Democrats is calling on Danco Laboratories, one of the manufacturers of the abortion pill mifepristone, to update the drug’s labeling to make it easier for patients to access the drug to help reduce complications from a miscarriage. The Democrats, led by Sens. Mazie Hirono (Hawaii), Elizabeth Warren (Mass.) and Maggie Hassan (N.H.), urged the company to submit an application to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to add miscarriage management to the medication’s label, which currently only includes medication abortion. (Weixel, 2/2)
AP: Nebraska Lawmakers Put Off Vote On 'Heartbeat' Abortion Ban
The Nebraska Legislature’s Health and Human Services Committee took nearly eight hours of testimony Wednesday before adjourning without a vote on whether to advance a bill that would outlaw abortion at a point before many women know they’re pregnant. Hundreds of people crowded the halls of the state Capitol for a committee hearing on a so-called heartbeat bill. (Beck, 2/2)
WRIC ABC 8 News: Virginia House Republicans Won’t Consider Youngkin’s Abortion Ban Proposal
For the second straight year, the Republican-led House of Delegates won’t vote on proposals from GOP state delegates to ban abortion in Virginia. Del. Rob Bell (R-Charlottesville), chair of the House Courts of Justice Committee, won’t docket any bills to impose restrictions on the procedure, including one backed by Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) that would ban most abortions after 15 weeks. (Mirshahi, 2/2)
Fox News: The Satanic Temple Opens Clinic To Provide 'Religious Abortion' Care Named For Justice Samuel Alito's Mother
The Satanic Temple is opening a health clinic in New Mexico to provide "free religious medication abortion" and will name the facility "The Samuel Alito’s Mom’s Satanic Abortion Clinic" in mockery of Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito, who authored the opinion overturning Roe v. Wade. (Pandolfo, 2/1)
Bloomberg: Drugstore Chains Are Anti-Abortion Groups’ Latest Target
Annual meetings are usually mundane affairs, full of auditors’ reports and PowerPoints about a company’s financial condition. But the Jan. 26 gathering of Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc. shareholders at a resort in Newport Coast, California, was anything but ordinary, after a group of about 80 anti-abortion activists with the organization Live Action showed up to protest the company’s decision to distribute pills used to terminate a pregnancy. (Case and Rutherford, 2/3)
NPR: Muslim-American Opinions On Abortion Are Complex. What Does Islam Actually Say?
After the U.S. Supreme Court's decision that ended the constitutional right to abortion, Zahra Ayubi started to notice a theme among some critics of the historic shift. "They'll draw analogies between abortion bans in the United States and Muslim conservatism," Ayubi, a professor of Islamic Ethics at Dartmouth College, said of some of the commentary she saw on TV and on social media. Critiques ranged from attempts at humor to outright Islamophobia. (Mohammad and Brown, 2/1)
In other reproductive health news —
ProPublica: Lawmakers Pledge to Fight for Comprehensive Action on Stillbirths
A growing number of lawmakers across the country are calling for action following a ProPublica investigation that revealed the failures of federal agencies and health care providers to reduce the country’s stillbirth rate. More than 20,000 pregnancies in the U.S. annually end in stillbirth — the death of an expected child at 20 weeks or more — an alarming figure that exceeds infant mortality and is 15 times the number of babies who died of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, or SIDS, in 2020. As many as 1 in 4 stillbirths may be preventable, experts say; the figure is even higher as a baby’s due date draws closer. (Eldeib, 2/2)
The Boston Globe: What Partners Should Understand About Postpartum Mood Disorders
Maternal mental health has been the subject of intense and understandable scrutiny in the wake of the death of three Duxbury children, allegedly at the hands of their mother, Lindsay Clancy. But there is much less information about partners, what they endure, how they can help, and even how to recognize when they, too, are in distress. (Mohammed, 2/2)
