Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
'Unprecedented' Abortion Pill Bill Clears Texas Senate
The Texas Tribune: Texas Lawmakers Propose Abortion Pill Bill That Can’t Be Challenged In State Courts
Senate Bill 2880, which passed the Senate last week, allows anyone who manufactures, distributes, mails, prescribes or provides an abortion-inducing drug to be sued for up to $100,000. ... That the Texas Senate passed a bill to crack down on abortion pills isn’t surprising. But the protections written into this bill, which says the law cannot be challenged as unconstitutional in state court, could have ripple effects far beyond the question of abortion access. “This is absolutely unprecedented, what they’re trying to do here,” Joanna Grossman, a law professor at Southern Methodist University Dedman School of Law, said. “I haven’t reviewed every law in Texas, but I think it’s safe to say this has never been tried.” (Klibanoff, 5/12)
The Washington Post: Digging Into The Math Of A Study Attacking The Safety Of The Abortion Pill
The Ethics and Public Policy Center, a think tank that says it opposes “the extreme progressive agenda while building consensus of conservatives,” recently issued a report on a key abortion medication, mifepristone, that it says raises questions about its safety. After analyzing insurance claims for more than 865,000 prescribed mifepristone abortions, the group said it had determined that almost 11 percent of women experienced a “serious adverse event,” much higher than an overall 0.5 percent rate found in clinical studies. ... We should note that, unlike most credible medical studies, the report did not undergo a formal external peer review before publication. (Kessler, 5/12)
On transgender health care —
The Texas Tribune: Texas House OKs Excluding Trans People From State Records
Dozens of trans people and their allies gathered in the outdoor Capitol rotunda Friday, chanting at the top of their lungs. They will not erase us. The next day, the Texas House of Representatives preliminarily passed a bill that aims to do just that. (Klibanoff, 5/10)
Spotlight on Maryland: Maryland Health Education Program With Gender Lessons Faces Trump Administration Review
A taxpayer-funded program aimed to lower birth rates and sexually transmitted infection rates in rural Maryland counties faces uncertainty amid a federal review by the Trump administration because of its inclusion of gender identity lessons. (Hauf, 5/9)
AP: Trump Has Broad Support For Some Transgender Policies, Poll Finds
About half of U.S. adults approve of how President Donald Trump is handling transgender issues, according to a new poll — a relative high point for a president who has the approval overall of about 4 in 10 Americans. But support for his individual policies on transgender people is not uniformly strong, with a clearer consensus against policies that affect youth. (Mulvihill and Sanders, 5/10)
More health news from across the U.S. —
Health News Florida: Florida Lawmakers Approve Bill To Improve Access To Some Unapproved Stem Cell Therapies
Before the annual session ended last week, the Florida Legislature approved a measure to improve access to some stem cell therapies that have not been approved by the Food and Drug Administration. If enacted, the bill (SB 1768) would authorize physicians to perform the treatments, provided they are within scope of practice and focus on orthopedics, wound care or pain management with strict requirements to ensure patient safety and ethical standards. (Mayer, 5/9)
Kansas City Star: Cancer Fears Have Some KC-Area Parents Requesting School Transfers, Urging More Testing
For nearly three years, Cory Brown has worried that the Liberty school her two kids attend is making people sick. She’s written the superintendent many times, the first email back in the fall of 2022 after multiple teachers were diagnosed with breast cancer. She questioned the presence of an active 120 foot tall cell tower, located 130 feet from Warren Hills Elementary, and has spoken to staff and other parents about their concerns. (Bauer, 5/9)
Blue Ridge Public Radio and Grist: What Mold In Black Mountain Could Teach Us About Health And Fungi After A Natural Disaster
After Helene, residents of Black Mountain noticed strange-colored mold was beginning to grow in some flooded buildings in town – and wondered if they should be worried for their health. “There was sort of this fine mist that settled on everything around,” said Duke University microbiologist Asiya Gusa, who visited the area in January. “That could have been a combination of the silt and the mud that was in the air as well as potentially fungi and fungal spores.” (Myers, 5/10)
San Francisco Chronicle: Berkeley Homeless Encampment Stokes Neighborhood Outrage
Wedged between tree-lined residential streets in North Berkeley sits Ohlone Park, a greenway spanning several blocks where dogs romp within a fenced enclosure, neighbors catch up over coffee and commuters cruise past on foot and on bikes. Over the past six months, the park has also been the site of a growing homeless encampment where at least two dozen people have pitched tents and stowed their belongings in the grassy expanse, angering neighbors who are fed up with finding overflowing garbage, discarded needles and human feces in their neighborhood park. (Bauman, 5/11)
