Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Texas High Court Refuses To Protect Doctors In Medically Needed Abortions
Reuters: Texas Top Court Won't Guarantee Right To Abortion In Complicated Pregnancies
Texas' highest court on Friday refused to ensure that doctors in the U.S. state are not prosecuted for abortions they believe are necessary in medically complicated pregnancies, rejecting a lawsuit by 22 patients and physicians. The Texas Supreme Court's decision follows an earlier ruling from the court denying a woman's request for an emergency abortion of a non-viable pregnancy. In both cases, plaintiffs said the medical exception to the state's near-total abortion ban was unclear, and left doctors unwilling to perform medically necessary abortions in the face of severe penalties including potentially life in prison. (Pierson, 6/1)
USA Today: Senate To Vote On Bill That Would Protect Access To Contraception
The Senate will vote on Wednesday on legislation that would protect access to contraception at the national level, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., announced in a letter to colleagues Sunday. A vote on the bill, which is led by Sens. Ed Markey, D-Mass., and Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, is an effort to force Republicans to stake out a position on a hot-button issue during an election year. (Beggin, 6/2)
In other reproductive health news —
NBC News: Male Birth Control Gel Is Safe And Effective, New Trial Findings Show
Every morning for a year and a half, Logan Whitehead, 24, rubbed a clear gel on his shoulders, waited for it to dry, then went about his day as usual. “It was basically like a hand sanitizer solution,” said Whitehead, who lives in Torrance, California. “Smelled like hand sanitizer, looked like hand sanitizer.” The gel wasn’t hand sanitizer, though. It was a hormonal solution meant to block Whitehead’s sperm production. The gel was male birth control. (Hopkins, 6/2)
St. Louis Public Radio: Embryo Rights Push Worries IVF Patients, Doctors In Midwest
For seven years, Jacqueline Brock endured grueling fertility treatments – and all of the emotion that came with it. “I had to stop going to outings with our friends because they’d bring their kids or talk about their kids, and I would just cry,” she said. “I didn't go to a lot of baby showers and things because I couldn't physically handle it.” (Krebs, 6/2)
The Atlantic: A Breakthrough In Preventing Stillbirths
When Mana Parast was a medical resident in 2003, she had an experience that would change the course of her entire career: her first fetal autopsy. The autopsy, which pushed Parast to pursue perinatal and placental pathology, was on a third-trimester stillbirth. “There was nothing wrong with the baby; it was a beautiful baby,” she recalls. We’re not done, she remembers her teacher telling her. Go find the placenta. (Marie Porter, 6/1)
