Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Texas Women Seeking Abortions In Neighboring State Clinics
The Wall Street Journal: Texas Abortion Law Prompts Women To Seek Out-Of-State Clinics
Women’s health clinics in Louisiana, Oklahoma and beyond are reporting an influx of out-of-state patients from Texas looking for abortions and other services, weeks after the U.S. Supreme Court allowed Texas’s restrictive abortion law to take effect. Some clinics in neighboring states said they are overwhelmed with out-of-state patients. They are adding hours to try to handle the backlog, administrators said. In Texas, meanwhile, clinics are turning most of their patients away and losing their staff. (Findell, 9/22)
KOKH: Oklahoma Abortion Clinics Flooded With Texas Patients Amid New State Law
A new Texas law banning most abortions is already causing a surge of women to start seeking care out-of-state. "Calls that we're taking are up about tenfold," said Zack Gingrich-Gaylord with Trust Women, one of just three abortion clinics in Oklahoma. Gingrich-Gaylord says Texas woman are flooding their phone lines as clinics in their state are being forced to turn patients away. (Pryor, 9/22)
Vox: What It’s Like To Seek An Abortion In Texas After SB 8 Was Passed Into Law
One Texas patient who was taking birth control had no idea she was pregnant until it was too late. Others came in for their state-mandated ultrasounds but had their abortion appointments delayed by Tropical Storm Nicholas. They, just like the first patient, will now have to travel hundreds or even thousands of miles in order to end their pregnancies — if they can get together the money, time off work, and child care necessary to do so. This is what it looks like to try to get an abortion in Texas since the passage of SB 8, a law that bans nearly all abortions after six weeks, before many people know they are pregnant. For the few patients who do realize it in time, it’s a race against the clock to schedule an appointment and get the money for the procedure — which costs an average of about $500 and typically isn’t covered by insurance. “There’s a sense of urgency that’s causing a devastation among our callers,” said Shae Ward, hotline program coordinator at the Lilith Fund, which funds abortions in Texas. “They just are like, ‘If it’s not done by then, I don’t know what I’m gonna do.’” (North, 9/21)
Rolling Stone: Texas Abortion Law Attracts Bizarre First Crop Of Bounty Seekers
What do these three people have in common: a disbarred Arkansas attorney under federal house arrest for tax evasion; another disbarred attorney, this one from Illinois, who lost his license for harassing and threatening other lawyers; and an attempted fire bomber from Kansas who served time in federal prison for conspiracy? Here’s the answer: All three of them have heeded Texas’s call for legal anarchy and filed complaints against a San Antonio abortion provider for violating SB8, the state’s ban on post-6 week abortions.This is a circus of Texas’s own making. To briefly recap, earlier this year Texas passed a one-of-a-kind law that bans abortions after 6 weeks and allows anyone anywhere to sue an abortion provider who violates the law. The 6-week ban isn’t novel. Other states have passed similar bans, and they have all been stopped by courts because they are blatantly unconstitutional. The original part of the Texas law is the provision that bars the state from enforcing the law and instead allows anyone to sue for a violation of the law. It is this unique aspect of the law that has so far made it very difficult to stop in court. (Cohen, 9/22)
The Texas Tribune: “Credible Threat” Made Against Texas Lawmakers Who Voted For Abortion Ban
Law enforcement on Tuesday evening alerted members of the Texas Legislature about “a credible threat” to their safety, citing that the concern was targeted at members who voted for the new six-week abortion ban passed by lawmakers earlier this year. (Pollock, 9/22)
The Hill: More Than 50 Companies Sign Letter Opposing Texas Abortion Law
More than 50 companies signed a letter this week saying that Texas' abortion ban threatens the health and economic stability of their workers and customers. Companies including Yelp, Lyft, VICE Media Group, Ben & Jerry’s and Reddit said Texas recently-enacted abortion law, which bans abortion after fetal cardiac activity is detected — usually around six weeks — goes against their company values. (Choi, 9/22)
CNN: David Simon Will Pull Upcoming HBO Series From Texas Over Abortion Law
"The Wire" creator David Simon won't be filming an upcoming HBO series in Texas due to a controversial abortion law passed in the state, he announced on Twitter. "As an employer, this is beyond politics," Simon wrote. "I'm turning in scripts next month on an HBO non-fiction miniseries based on events in Texas, but I can't and won't ask female cast/crew to forgo civil liberties to film there. What else looks like Dallas/Ft. Worth?" (Garvey, 9/22)
In related news about abortion —
The New York Times: Abortion Rights: OkCupid Features “Pro-Choice” Badge
The dating service OkCupid has introduced a way for users to clearly indicate their support of abortion rights: a “pro-choice” badge that appears prominently in a dating profile. Melissa Hobley, OkCupid’s chief marketing officer, said the feature was created in response to the passage of Senate Bill 8, which has made abortion essentially illegal in Texas. (OkCupid’s parent company, Match Group, is headquartered in Dallas.) (Safronova, 9/20)
The Cut: Uma Thurman Reflects on Having An Abortion As a Teen
Actor Uma Thurman has been following the fallout from the most recent attempt to gut abortion access in Texas, and she is filled with — in her own words — “great sadness, and something akin to horror.” On Tuesday, Thurman published an op-ed in the Washington Post, documenting her own abortion experience “in the hope of drawing the flames of controversy away from the vulnerable women on whom this law will have an immediate effect” and “stand[ing] up in their shoes.” “The abortion I had as a teenager was the hardest decision of my life, one that caused me anguish then and that saddens me even now,” she writes, “but it was the path to the life full of joy and love that I have experienced.” She added: “Choosing not to keep that early pregnancy allowed me to grow up and become the mother I wanted and needed to be.” (Lampen, 9/22)
