Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Senators Demand To Know Why Troops Are Struggling To Get Birth Control
Military.com: Democrats Push Pentagon On Birth Control For Service Members As Defense Bill Looks To Ease Access
As studies show service members continue to struggle to access birth control, a group of Senate Democrats is pushing the Defense Department to do more to expand contraception services and counseling. In a letter Tuesday to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, a dozen Democrats on the Senate Armed Services Committee pushed for details on any "barriers preventing the department from implementing provisions mandated by Congress to protect and expand service members' access to contraception and contraceptive counseling." (Kheel, 6/25)
In other reproductive health news —
ABC News: Supreme Court Poised To Deliver Major Rulings On Presidential Immunity, Abortion Access
The Supreme Court, nearing the end of its term, is poised to soon deliver rulings in high-profile cases on everything from presidential power to abortion access. The justices will release opinions on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday this week. It will mark the first time in at least a decade the justices have done three opinion days in a row. The timing means key decisions, some with enormous consequences for the 2024 campaign, could be handed down just before President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump meet on stage in Atlanta for their first debate. (Dwyer and Hutzler, 6/25)
Wyoming Public Radio: First Wyoming Reproductive Freedom Summit Considers Abortion’s Uncertain Future
The first-ever Wyoming Reproductive Freedom Summit took place at the Lander Convention Center on June 22. On a Saturday afternoon, more than 150 people gathered to talk about the state of abortion care in the Cowboy State. The summit was hosted by Chelsea’s Fund, a Wyoming-based non-profit abortion advocacy organization. (Habermann, 6/25)
The Cut: 78 Patients and 10 Hours Inside an Abortion Clinic in the South
On a disgustingly hot Thursday in June, car after car pulled into the parking lot of A Preferred Women’s Health Center in Charlotte, North Carolina, and left their engines running to cool off the abortion seekers sitting inside. They could be waiting well over two hours before getting a notification on their phones that it’s their turn to enter the clinic. Two years after Dobbs, APWHC is one of vanishingly few places in the South where someone can get an abortion. (Gonzalez-Ramirez, 6/24)
WTOP: At This Va. Abortion Clinic, Abortion Is Illegal Right Down The Road
Two years after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, effectively striking down the nationwide right to an abortion, the law surrounding abortion services in Bristol, Virginia, has become unique, to say the least. Bristol is a city that includes portions of both Virginia and Tennessee. While abortion remains legal in Virginia, it has since been banned in Tennessee, creating an awkward situation for an abortion clinic in Bristol that’s on the Virginia side of the city. (Iannelli, 6/24)
