Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Viewpoints: D.C.'s Death With Dignity Law Deserves Policymakers' Respect; International Opioid Trafficking Loopholes
The Washington Post: The White House And Congress Should Respect D.C.’s Decision On ‘Death With Dignity’
Proponents of the District’s Death With Dignity law breathed a sigh of relief when a Republican effort to block the law led by Rep. Jason Chaffetz failed. When Mr. Chaffetz later announced he would be resigning his Utah seat, there was guarded hope the matter would be quietly dropped. Then, a new low in federal meddling: President Trump included a rider in his proposed budget that would prevent D.C. officials from spending local tax dollars to give their residents a right that is exercised in six states. (5/27)
WBUR: Why I Encourage My Seriously Ill Patients To Imagine The Worst
Facing worst-case scenarios in a safe environment can help people prepare themselves and practice how they might react. Consider the large body of scary children’s stories. Fairy tales and Disney movies are laden with wolves with large teeth, wicked witches, dragons breathing fire, even menacing adults. Yet far from harming children, exposure to such stories helps them build skills for dealing with frightening or threatening situations in real life. (Kathryn Kirkland, 5/29)
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Block The Loophole In International Opioid Trafficking
Today, the global marketplace has made it easier than ever to order deadly, synthetic drugs over the Internet with just the click of a button. Growing evidence shows that these drugs are increasingly coming to the U.S. from abroad — and they’re reaching Wisconsin. In recent weeks, Milwaukee County has reported Wisconsin’s first deaths linked to carfentanil, a deadly elephant tranquilizer 10,000 times more potent than morphine. (Tom Ridge, 5/26)
Los Angeles Times: What Happens When Abortion Is Illegal In All Circumstances
El l Salvador has one of the worst records on reproductive rights in the world. Since 1998, Article 133 of the Penal Code has made abortion illegal in all circumstances, without exception, punishable by up to eight years in prison. Sentences of up to 30 years have been handed down when a judge determined that “homicide” rather than abortion had occurred. The Alliance for Women’s Health and Life has reported that 147 El Salvadorian women were charged with crimes relating to abortion between 2000 and 2014. (Jeannette Urquilla, 5/30)
The Des Moines Register: Anti-Abortion Agenda Limits Birth Control
Planned Parenthood of the Heartland announced this month it will close clinics in Bettendorf, Burlington, Keokuk and Sioux City. So where will the Iowans served by those clinics go? On a mission to "defund" Planned Parenthood, Republican lawmakers insisted on forfeiting all federal family planning money to prevent any of it from compensating a health provider that also offered abortions. They repeatedly insisted Planned Parenthood closings would not harm the availability of health care. In one particularly memorable committee meeting exchange, Sen. Janet Petersen, D-Des Moines, asked Sen. Jeff Edler, R-State Center, what new providers would offer pregnancy-prevention services if Planned Parenthood did not. (5/27)
The New York Times: W.H.O.’s Identity Crisis
On Tuesday, the World Health Organization, under more democratic rules than in the past, elected its first African director general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. Dr. Tedros, who goes by his first name, is a malaria expert who built his reputation by cutting through bureaucracy to bring transformative change to health services in his native Ethiopia. The W.H.O. will need him to do just that in his new job. (5/29)
