Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Viewpoints: Racial Health Inequities Harm Black Mothers; The Abortion Battle Rages On
The Boston Globe: Giving Birth While Black Should Not Be A Death Sentence
As the nation marks Black Maternal Health Week, founded by the Black Mamas Matter Alliance to deepen the national conversation about Black maternal health, it is important to recognize the urgency to curb this unacceptable but persistent disparity by prioritizing community-driven care solutions. The circumstances Black people face are not simply a matter of an economic or education system, but of a system that reinforces inequitable and discriminatory practices. There’s no clearer example than that of Serena Williams, who despite being one of the world’s greatest athletes and a successful businesswoman, faced life-threatening failures in her care in the time surrounding childbirth. In her own words, Williams said, “Being heard and appropriately treated was the difference between life or death for me; I know those statistics would be different if the medical establishment listened to every Black woman’s experience.” (Allison Bryant, Makeeba McCreary and Elsie Taveras, 4/14)
Miami Herald: Texas Offers Glimpse Into Future Of Abortion Wars. It's Not Pretty
Last week, Texas gave us a glimpse of the future. It was not pretty. It seems that on Thursday, a 26-year-old woman was arrested and charged with murder. Specifically, according to a statement from the Sheriff’s Department in tiny Starr County on the Mexican border, Lizelle Herrera “intentionally and knowingly” caused “the death of an individual by self-induced abortion.” (Leonard Pitts Jr., 4/14)
NBC News: Florida Gov. DeSantis May Be In For A Rude Awakening Over 15-Week Abortion Ban Law
Sometime before its session ends this summer, the Supreme Court is likely to either eliminate the federal right to abortion or, at a minimum, significantly scale it back. That ruling will be made in the case of Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which is expected to overturn precedent to find that banning abortion after 15 weeks doesn’t violate the Constitution. Currently, it is unconstitutional to ban abortion before viability, which occurs around 24 weeks of pregnancy and marks the point at which a fetus can survive outside the uterus. (Caroline Mala Corbin, 4/14)
The New York Times: Nursing Homes Are In Crisis. We Can’t Look Away Any Longer.
Of all the terms that have been redefined during the past two years, perhaps none has undergone more change than “disaster.” The definition has been stretched in nearly every direction possible. Tasks like business travel that might have seemed normal before prolonged isolation and lockdown are now described as unbearable ordeals; weeks where only 900 Covid patients die per day are tolerable. Our response to “disaster” has also changed as Covid has revealed whose crises matter and whose do not. In the early months of the pandemic, when the public learned about thousands of deaths in understaffed and poorly run nursing homes around the country, an optimist might have expected extensive and immediate change to that industry. (Jay Caspian Kang, 4/14)
The New York Times: A Nurse Made a Fatal Mistake. Should She Go to Prison for It?
We all carry the memory of our mistakes. For health care workers like me, these memories surface in the early morning when we cannot sleep or at a bedside where, in some way, we are reminded of a patient who came before. Most were errors in judgment or near misses: a procedure we thought could wait, a subtle abnormality in vital signs that didn’t register as a harbinger of serious illness, an X-ray finding missed, a central line nearly placed in the wrong blood vessel. Even the best of us have stories of missteps, close calls that are caught before they ever cause patient harm. (Daniela J. Lamas, 4/15)
The CT Mirror: Hospital Community Benefit Requirements: Stronger Is Better
Patients and their caregivers expect the chains that own Connecticut’s non-profit hospitals to invest in healthier communities. Women’s health, maternity services, housing, childhood immunization programs, lead abatement, transportation, and other needs that are identified by those directly impacted in the facility’s service area should be prioritized. How can we get there? By strengthening S.B. 476 — the Governor’s proposal for improving community benefit laws — by clarifying what hospitals report on and implementing a spending floor. (John Brady, 4/15)
Stat: FDA Needs To Follow Through On Its Plan To Ban Carbadox In Animal Feed
An antibiotic known as carbadox can damage genes and cause cancer. The European Union, Canada, Australia, and the United Kingdom have banned its use for years. So why does the U.S. Food and Drug Administration allow pork producers to keep using it? Carbadox is fed to more than half of the pigs raised in the U.S. for food. It promotes growth and controls gut infections. But it poses significant safety risks to consumers who unknowingly consume carbadox residues when eating pork. It can also harm farm workers who are exposed to the drug when mixing feed or working in buildings where carbadox is used. (Harry Rhodes, 4/15)
