Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Viewpoints: Overturning Roe Disregards First Amendment; Adoption Is Not A Substitute For Abortion
NBC News: Jewish Abortion Rights Advocates Use Religious Freedom Suit To Try To Save Access
The anti-abortion rights movement is largely faith based. Catholics and evangelical Christians argue that life begins at conception, and that fetuses have souls. On those grounds, they want to prevent anyone from obtaining abortion services. They’ve had a good deal of success with that recently. A leaked Supreme Court draft opinion suggests the high court is set to overturn Roe v. Wade, effectively gutting the constitutional right to abortion. In anticipation, many conservative states have passed sweeping anti-abortion legislation. (Noah Berlatsky, 6/18)
The New York Times: Putting Babies Up For Adoption Isn’t An Alternative To Abortion
There’s a lot I don’t remember about giving birth to my first child. But I do remember 24 hours of back labor followed by two hours of pushing to no avail. I remember, through a high fever and the agony of exertion, my body shaking with hard chills when I heard the doctor say the words “emergency C-section.” I remember feeling a scalpel run along my midsection and screaming “Yes!” when asked if I was in pain and then “No” when asked if I would like to see my baby. No way did I want to meet my child for the first time under these circumstances. (Pamela Paul, 6/19)
The Washington Post: Adoption Is Not A Fairy-Tale Answer To Abortion
My biological mother became pregnant in the 1980s in South Korea, where abortion was illegal except in the rarest circumstances (and remained so until 2021). When she gave birth to me, there was no social safety net to help her. Although I’ll never know the details of how I ended up on a street at 7 weeks old, I do know my mother’s lack of choice played a large role. If the Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade, pregnant people in the United States will face a similarly unconscionable lack of choice. And the consequences could be grievous for them and their children. (Cynthia Landesberg, 6/20)
Also —
The New York Times: What We Do — And, Frustratingly, Don’t — Know About Long Covid
Depending on the data you look at, between 10 and 40 percent of people who get Covid will still have symptoms months later. For some, those symptoms will be modest. A cough, some fatigue. For others, they’ll be life-altering: Debilitating brain fog. Exhaustion. Cardiovascular problems. Blood clotting. This is what we call long Covid. It’s one term for a vast range of experiences, symptoms, outcomes. It’s one term that may be hiding a vast range of maladies and causes. So what do we actually know about long Covid? What don’t we know? And why don’t we know more than we do? (Ezra Klein, 6/21)
The Washington Post: Covid-19 Vaccines For Kids Under 5 Mean A New Phase Of The Pandemic
With coronavirus vaccines finally available to the youngest Americans, the United States has reached an important turning point. Finally, children between 6 months and 4 years of age and their families can join the rest of the country in the new normal. And this campaign marks the beginning of treating covid-19 as an endemic infection handled through the routine health-care system. (Alyssa Rosenberg, 6/20)
Stat: How The LGBTQ+ Community Can Improve Health Care For Everyone
The brewing monkeypox outbreak that’s raising health alarms in the LGBTQ+ community comes on the heels of the still-mysterious long Covid being compared to HIV, with strikingly similar implications. It all brings back disquieting memories of the early 1980s, neatly captured in an infamous New York Times headline: “Rare Cancer Seen in 41 Homosexuals.” Long Covid and monkeypox are very different diseases from HIV, but the lessons of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, many of them learned through suffering and death, can offer a pathway to better health care for everyone, including people with Covid, cancer, and even monkeypox. (Frederick Isasi, 6/20)
Los Angeles Times: Why Is It So Hard To Get Healthcare As A Trans Cancer Patient?
Nobody can know what it is like to be a cancer patient without actually having cancer. Before I was diagnosed, I had proximity to cancer patients and experiences in healthcare that I thought gave me insight. In some ways they did. Yet although I had previously experienced discrimination for being transgender, nothing could have prepared me for what I was about to endure as a trans cancer patient. The abusive treatment I have experienced makes clear how having cancer and being trans are stigmatized in our healthcare system. (Lex Rivers, 6/20)
