Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Viewpoints: Anti-Abortion Bans Aren't Settling Well With Most Americans; Violent Young Men Is Much Scarier Issue Than Guns
The Washington Post: More Evidence That Abortion Bans Are Widely Unpopular
A new poll from the Public Religion Research Institute finds a majority of Americans (54 percent) think abortion should be legal in all or most cases, while 25 percent think it should be illegal in most cases, and only 15 percent think it should be illegal in all cases. “Although a few states such as Alabama and Missouri have recently passed laws that — should they survive court challenges — would make abortion illegal with virtually no exceptions, there is no state in which more than one-quarter of residents say abortion should be illegal in all cases,” the polls finds. “States with the largest proportion of residents who say abortion should be illegal in all cases include: Louisiana (23%), Mississippi (22%), Arkansas (21%), Nebraska (21%), Tennessee (21%), Kentucky (20%), and North Dakota (20%). In all other states, including Alabama (16%) and Missouri (19%), fewer than one in five think abortion should be illegal in all cases.” (Jennifer Rubin, 8/13)
The Washington Post: For Many Women In Texas, Seeking An Abortion Has Become An Insurmountable Hurdle
God help women who get pregnant in Texas and regret it. That’s especially true for women who live in the state’s vast geography west of Interstate 35, where abortion is no longer available, with the sole exception of a clinic in the distant border city of El Paso. Women in Texas contend with state political leaders who treat legal abortion more like a sin and a crime. The Texas legislature convenes only once every two years, but that usually means things are going to get worse for women seeking reproductive services. Politics and religion, more than science or medicine, have driven most of the new restrictions on abortion here since 2011. (Robert Rivard, 8/13)
Nashville Tennessean: 'Heartbeat Bill' Would Have Unintended, Unconstitutional Consequences
Now the Senate is considering a bill that’s will have the effect of not only eliminating abortion, but also making a Tennessean’s choice of contraception a criminal act. If it passes this committee, it will go the Senate, where it will pass along partisan lines unless Tennesseans speak up. This is a watershed moment for the constitutional right to privacy of the citizens of this state. If they are criminalizing abortion and contraception now, what’s next? Eliminating all birth control, hysterectomies and vasectomies? It’s not too late to say something to your senator, the Judiciary Committee or the governor. (J. Scott “Skip” Rudsenske , 8/13)
The Wall Street Journal: Violent Young Men, Here And Abroad
America’s young male killers, who glory in indiscriminate slaughter, are a Western eruption of a larger phenomenon. What’s often called “stateless terrorism,” or deadly extremism by individuals and groups, could as accurately be described as a male crackup. This convulsion has been most acute in the Muslim Middle East, where modern authoritarianism has bulldozed the past, freeing young men from once-powerful social constraints and exposing them to a radical religious rebellion. America—the relentless engine of innovation and change—now also faces an outbreak of disconnected young men murdering exuberantly. (Reuel Marc Gerecht, 8/13)
The Hill: An Effective Public Service Announcement Can Prevent Vet Suicides
Most adults in the United States clearly remember the solitary tear that rolled down the face of Iron Eyes Cody, the Native American featured in the Keep America Beautiful public service announcement (PSA) throughout the 1970s and '80s that encouraged us not to litter. More importantly, however, as a result of this PSA, they remember that they stopped littering. Despite the fact that, every 11 minutes someone dies by suicide, and the fact that many of those individuals are veterans, few people have the same recollection of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA)’s “Be There for Veterans” PSA, which has aired on-and-off since 2017. (Rory Riley-Topping and Andrew Vernon, 8/13)
Stat: Dementia Friendly Projects And Communities Are Sorely Needed
For baby boomers and their parents, there’s no biomedical solution in sight for preventing or curing dementia. That means we need to help people face the prospect of living with dementia and support families affected by it through dementia-friendly policies aligned with their needs.Where should we start? One place is at the movies. (Nancy Berlinger, 8/14)
The Hill: Private Sector Versus Medicare? It's Basically The Same Thing
Here’s a yes or no question that most Americans, including those running for president get wrong: Is Medicare run by the government? Before I started working at Medicare after a decade in health care, I would have said so. But after several years at the agency, I came to realize that the better one-word answer is actually no — Medicare in truth is run by private industry. Sure, the relatively tiny number of employees at the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) play a key oversight role, but they don’t in any real sense deliver Medicare to the American people. The principal job of CMS’s 6,200 employees is to manage contracts with hundreds of private companies, both small and large, that together provide Medicare to us all. (Ted Doolittle, 8/13)
WBUR: Moving Away From 'White People Only' DNA Tests: African Project Seeks Thousands For Mental Health Genetics
Much research has found that such family resemblance is influenced by genes more than by any other risk factor, and genes are emerging as important clues for new treatments. But research on the genetic basis of mental illness has so far largely excluded anyone who is not of European heritage. That means that this Kenyan family, and other people of African descent, might not benefit from the new biological insights into mental illness. (Anne Stevenson and Lukoye Atwoli, 8/13)
Austin American-Statesman: Texas Needs Smarter Approach To HPV Vaccinations
Only 40% of Texas teens are up to date on the HPV vaccination, trailing the national average by 9 percentage points, the Texas Tribune reported this week. Texas has the fifth-highest rate of cervical cancer cases in the country. State officials chalked up 431 deaths and $41 million in hospital care last year to the disease — terrible costs that could be reduced if more people were vaccinated. (8/13)
