Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
With At Least 20 Cases Barreling Toward Supreme Court, Both Sides Of Abortion Debate Are On Edges Of Their Seats
The Washington Post: At Least 20 Abortion Cases Are In The Pipeline To The Supreme Court. Any One Could Gut Roe V. Wade.
The Supreme Court’s 5-to-4 vote this month to block a restrictive Louisiana abortion law from taking effect provided some measure of consolation to reproductive rights advocates who feared the court’s new conservative majority would act immediately to restrict access to the procedure. But that relief is likely to be short lived. In the pipeline are at least 20 lawsuits, in various stages of judicial review, that have the potential to be decided in ways that could significantly change the rights laid out in the 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling, and refined almost two decades later in Planned Parenthood v. Casey. The 1992 decision said a state may place restrictions on abortion as long as it does not create an “undue burden” on a woman’s right to abortion. (Cha, 2/15)
The New York Times: Embryo ‘Adoption’ Is Growing, But It’s Getting Tangled In The Abortion Debate
As evangelical Christians, Paul and Susan Lim believe that life begins at conception. So when they decided to have a third child, in vitro fertilization was out of the question, since the process often yields extra embryos. But “adopting” the frozen embryos of another couple who had gone through I.V.F. was not. Dr. Lim called it a “rescue operation.” To him, transferring donated embryos to his wife’s uterus was akin to saving a life. “These children are being abandoned in a frozen state,” he said. “If they don’t get adopted, they’re dead.” (Lester, 2/17)
And in other news on abortion —
The New York Times: States Flout Abortion Coverage Requirements, Federal Investigators Say
Federal health officials are not enforcing requirements for Medicaid coverage of abortion in the limited circumstances where it is legal, congressional investigators have found. At least 13 states are flouting a requirement to cover abortion-inducing pills, and one state, South Dakota, has for 25 years failed to provide the required coverage for abortion in cases of rape or incest, the Government Accountability Office, a nonpartisan investigative arm of Congress, said in a report made public this month. (Pear, 2/17)
The Associated Press: Illinois Democrats Propose Expanded Abortion Access
Illinois Democrats have introduced two measures that would expand abortion access in the state by removing a parental notification requirement and a ban on late-term abortions. The proposed legislation was filed Wednesday, The Chicago Tribune reported. One bill sponsored by Democratic Rep. Emanuel Welch of Hillside would repeal the state's parental notice law, which requires minors to notify a legal guardian before having an abortion. (2/15)
The Associated Press: Iowa Governor Opts Not To Appeal Fetal Heartbeat Law Ruling
Iowa's governor said Monday she decided against appealing a judge's ruling last month that struck down Iowa's "fetal heartbeat" abortion law, which would have been the most restrictive anti-abortion law in the nation. Gov. Kim Reynolds called it an extremely difficult decision but the right one for the state. (Pitt, 2/18)
