State Highlights: U.S. House Votes To Block D.C.’s Reproductive Health Rule And Death-With-Dignity Law

The Hill: House Votes To Block DC Reproductive Health Law 
The House voted on Thursday to prevent D.C. from receiving funding to implement a local law making it illegal for employers to discriminate against workers based on reproductive health decisions. An amendment offered by Rep. Gary Palmer (R-Ala.) to a 2018 government-spending package would prohibit the use of funds for the District to implement the law, which bans employers from punishing workers for obtaining contraception, family planning services or abortions. (Marcos, 9/14)

The Washington Post: House Votes To Repeal D.C.’s Death With Dignity Law; Senate Has Yet To Act
The U.S. House on Thursday passed a spending bill that would block five laws affecting the District of Columbia, including the city’s new assisted-suicide law. The bill would also block the District from spending money to subsidize abortion for low-income residents; regulate the sale of marijuana; or carry out a law that says employers cannot discriminate against workers based on their reproductive decisions, such as whether to take birth control or seek an abortion. (Portnoy, 9/14)

Los Angeles Times: California Lawmakers Back Bill To Protect Workers' Reproductive Health Choices Over Opposition From Religious Groups
Employees would not risk losing their jobs for reproductive health choices, including having an abortion, in-vitro fertilization or a child out of wedlock, under a bill that passed the Legislature on Thursday. The measure, by Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez Fletcher (D-San Diego), takes aim at employer codes of conduct, particularly at religious institutions, that could cost workers their jobs for making such health decisions. (Mason, 9/14)

Iowa Public Radio: DHS To Evaluate New Family Planning Program That Excludes Planned Parenthood
State officials will be keeping a close watch over a new state-run family planning program under an initiative unveiled at a statehouse committee this week. The Department of Human Services will be gathering data to determine how services are affected now that Planned Parenthood clinics aren’t included. (Russell, 9/14)

The Washington Post: Hospital Staffers Took Photos Of A Patient’s Genitals — And The Foreign Object Lodged There
It seemed like the whole [Pittsburgh] hospital was in the operating room. The crowd had gathered with smartphones in hand, snapping photos and recording video, the object of their fascination a patient's genitals with a foreign object protrusion. It was “a ton” of staff, to be precise, according to one staffer. (Horton, 9/15)

New Hampshire Union Leader: Hospital Executives Discuss Merging Challenges
The president and CEO of Wentworth-Douglass Hospital joined a senior vice president from Massachusetts General Hospital on Thursday to talk about their merger during the first CEO Forum of the academic year at the University of New Hampshire. On Jan. 1, Wentworth-Douglass was officially acquired by Massachusetts General Hospital. Tony James, senior vice president of network development and integration for Massachusetts General, told the crowd in Durham that now people who receive treatment in Boston can get the follow-up care they need in Dover. James said they have always catered to the Seacoast population. (Haas, 9/14)

Boston Globe: Hospital Industry Group Taps Ex-Lawmaker As New Chief
The Massachusetts hospital industry’s largest trade group Thursday named former state representative Steven Walsh as its new chief executive. Walsh, 44, will head the Massachusetts Health & Hospital Association beginning in November, replacing Lynn Nicholas, 63, who announced her retirement several months ago. (Dayal McCluskey, 9/14)

St. Louis Post Dispatch: SSM Consolidates Hospital Foundations, Looks To Spur Greater Change 
For decades, many of SSM’s local hospitals have had an associated foundation, a group led by a volunteer board that raises money to improve facilities and programs. But gone are the days of marrying a charitable foundation to nearly every SSM hospital in the region. Instead, Creve Coeur-based SSM Health is deliberately constructing a larger, more influential philanthropic entity to serve the entire region. (Liss, 9/15)

The Philadelphia Inquirer/Philly.com: Union Prevails At Philly LGBTQ Mazzoni Health Center
Workers at Philadelphia’s scandal-ridden LGBT health-care provider, Mazzoni Center, have won a vote to unionize. Mazzoni leaders have been scrambling to restore order to the health center, which provides vital services in particular to low-income, HIV-positive, and transgender clients, since the medical director, chief executive, and several board members all departed the agency this year. That shake-up followed allegations of sexual misconduct by former medical director Rob Winn. (Melamed, 9/14)

Minnesota Public Radio: Unhealthy Air Expected Again For Swath Of Southern Minn.
Almost the entire southern half of Minnesota will have air quality unhealthy for some people on Friday, the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency says. The cause: unseasonably high temps, sunny skies and bad air moving from the southern and central U.S., the MPCA said in a statement. (Nelson, 9/14)

The Star Tribune: Metro Area, Much Of Southern Minnesota Under Air Quality Alert Friday
The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) has issued an “unhealthy for sensitive groups” air quality alert for southern, eastern and portions of central Minnesota from noon to 8 p.m. Friday. The affected area will include the Twin Cities, Marshall, Rochester, St. Cloud and the Tribal Nation of Upper Sioux. (Pheifer, 9/14)

The Oregonian: At Least 43 Kids Reported Sick After Insecticide Exposure At Day Care 
At least 50 people – 43 children and seven adults – reported health problems after being exposed to a powerful insecticide at an Oregon day care, according to newly disclosed state records and information obtained by The Oregonian/OregonLive. The statistics reveal publicly for the first time the scope of reported ailments at a Coos Bay childcare center, which the newsroom uncovered in May. (Schmidt, 9/14)

The Philadelphia Inquirer/Philly.com: Bucks County Pharmacist Charged With Trying To Kill Her Mom With Insulin Injection
After Donna Horger injected her chronically ill mother with insulin, she would later tell authorities that she hoped the 74-year-old “would not wake up and just pass.” But Mary Horger, who suffers from dementia and osteoporosis, did not die. Instead, her daughter, a licensed pharmacist, was arrested for attempted murder. Authorities say the 50-year-old resident of Feasterville, Bucks County, surreptitiously gave her immobile mother the injections at least three times last month in an attempt to lower her blood sugar to a fatal level. (McCarthy, 9/14)

Texas Tribune: Texas School Districts May Now Store, Not Trash, Leftover Food
Senate Bill 725, which became effective immediately after Gov. Greg Abbott signed the legislation in June, allows schools to create food pantries on campus where they can store donated food as well as surplus food from the cafeteria. (Swaby, 9/15)