Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Supreme Court To Hear Oral Arguments Wednesday In First Big Abortion Test In Front Of New Justices
ABC News: Supreme Court Set To Hear Critical Louisiana Abortion Case
Four years after striking down a Texas law it said created an "undue burden" on abortion access, the Supreme Court is poised to take up a similar challenge. June Medical Services v. Russo (previously v. Gee) is a challenge from Louisiana abortion providers to a 2014 state law that requires abortion providers to have admitting privileges with a nearby hospital. Hospital admitting privileges are an agreement between a doctor and a hospital that allows a patient to go that hospital if they need urgent care. It may not sound like an arduous requirement, but the plaintiff argues that the stipulation, if enforced, would effectively eliminate abortion access throughout the state. (Svokos, 3/1)
Reuters: Abortion Rights Face Stern New Test At Conservative U.S. Supreme Court
The court, with a 5-4 conservative majority, is scheduled on Wednesday to hear arguments in an appeal by Shreveport-based abortion provider Hope Medical Group for Women seeking to invalidate the law. Chief Justice John Roberts may be pivotal in deciding the outcome, with Trump’s appointees Brett Kavanaugh and Neil Gorsuch also in the spotlight. The clinic sued to block the 2014 law, which requires that doctors who perform abortions have a difficult-to-obtain arrangement called “admitting privileges” at a hospital within 30 miles (48 km) of the abortion clinic. A federal appeals court ruled against the clinic and upheld the law. (Hurley, 3/1)
USA Today: Abortion: Supreme Court May Reverse Abortion Rights In Louisiana Case
It was just 2016 when the high court struck down restrictions on Texas clinics and doctors as an undue burden on women. The ruling helped abortion rights advocates beat back similar laws in other states. Now a nearly identical law in neighboring Louisiana is before the court, and the prognosis for abortion opponents has improved dramatically. State officials contend the facts on the ground, as well as the legal issues, call for a different result. But there is another reason as well. (Wolf, 3/2)
Axios: Supreme Court To Hear First Big Abortion Case Since Kavanaugh's Confirmation
The Supreme Court this week will wade into its first big abortion case since Justice Brett Kavanaugh joined the bench. Why it matters: It will give us the clearest indication yet of just how quickly and aggressively the newly expanded conservative majority is likely to move in curtailing abortion rights. (Baker, 3/1)
The Associated Press: A Clinic Prepares For Supreme Court Abortion Fight
The Hope Medical Group for Women in northern Louisiana fields phone calls every day from anxious pregnant women who ask if abortion is still legal and if the clinic, one of only three that provides abortions in the state, is still open. Despite the protesters who sometimes gather outside, the threats that forced the clinic to board up all the windows and the repeated restrictions put upon abortion providers in this staunchly anti-abortion state, the clinic stands. (3/2)
In other news on abortion —
Vox: What Anti-Abortion 'Crisis Pregnancy Centers' Really Do
When Aya got a positive pregnancy test, she wanted to confirm the results at a clinic. But the first six places she called either required her to pay out of pocket, or had no appointments for a week. So Aya went to a pregnancy resource center. Sometimes called crisis pregnancy centers, the facilities’ “primary mission is to dissuade women from choosing abortion,” Katrina Kimport, an associate professor at Advancing New Standards in Reproductive Health (ANSIRH), a group at the University of California San Francisco, writes in a new study of patients at the centers, published on Friday in the journal Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health. (North, 3/2)
The Associated Press: Used To Giving Orders, Kansas Abortion Foes Can’t Cut A Deal
Abortion opponents who’ve become used to giving orders to Kansas lawmakers on the exact wording of new restrictions are stymied now that they face compromising to get a proposed anti-abortion amendment to the state constitution on the ballot. After falling short in a House vote three weeks ago, abortion opponents have pressured a dozen members who voted no, moderate Republicans and Democrats who are Catholic or who represent relatively conservative or heavily Catholic districts. (Hanna, 2/28)
