Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Worries That Anti-Abortion Centers Will Grow In Post-Roe Times
AP: Anti-Abortion Centers To Grow, Wield More Influence Post-Roe
“Woman’s Choice,” the sign proclaims in bold pink letters. But despite promising abortion information and free pregnancy testing, the facility in Charleston, West Virginia, is designed to steer women facing an unwanted pregnancy away from choosing an abortion. That will become much easier now that the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that states like West Virginia can make abortion illegal. (Kruesi and Willingham, 6/27)
Bloomberg: Anti-Abortion Centers In US Find Pregnant Teens Online, Then Save Their Data
Meanwhile, the crisis pregnancy nonprofits are sharpening their digital skills, investing their donations and state funding into outreach on social media, targeting teens and young adults. The centers have poured money into advertising on search and social media products such as TikTok, Instagram and Snapchat. And some of them have begun using these platforms to spread not merely marketing messages but also what physicians and other health care professionals say is harmful misinformation. On Snapchat, for instance, the centers appear to have been using the app to gain exposure to teenagers and women in their early 20s, Snapchat’s core audience. When searching in California, each of the nine businesses listed on Snap Maps under “pregnancy tests” are anti-abortion clinics. That's also true for all all but one of the 10 listed when searching for “pregnancy.” Eleven of the 24 locations listed under “abortion” on Snap Maps in the same location were anti-abortion clinics. Three offered the so-called abortion reversal pill, which is considered dangerous by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, due to risk of hemorrhaging. (Murphy, 6/27)
CNN: Abortion Clinics In The Deep South Are Dealing With The Realities Of A Post-Roe V. Wade World
Jenny and Lisa had two very different experiences when they each decided to visit the Alabama Women's Center in Huntsville, nearly two weeks apart. Lisa, 18, was able to undergo an abortion procedure on June 10, she told CNN Monday. Jenny, 18, came in Monday unaware that the Supreme Court's overturning of Roe v. Wade -- thus allowing states to limit abortion access -- had taken immediate effect. "I didn't know it was already causing places to stop doing them," Jenny said. "I just started crying." (Vera and Kaye, 6/28)
The Washington Post: With Access In Peril, 2 Women Open A Later-Abortion Clinic In Maryland
Diane Horvath leaned across the table to read the latest list off her phone: operating room lights, waiting room furniture and a storage closet. An abortion clinic closing in Georgia offered to sell all of it, cheap. Horvath, a physician, and Morgan Nuzzo, a certified nurse-midwife, are scrambling to amass secondhand medical equipment, raise money, hire staff and complete renovations in preparation to open a clinic in College Park. In the seven weeks since a leaked draft opinion showed the Supreme Court voted to overturn Roe v. Wade, the landmark ruling legalizing abortion nationwide, Horvath and Nuzzo have been part of a nationwide reshuffling of providers, equipment and even buildings. The National Abortion Federation created an online members-only marketplace where buyers and sellers can connect. (Portnoy, 6/27)
In related news about abortion access —
KQED: Californian Volunteer Networks Get Ready For Influx Of Patients Seeking Abortion
As numerous states have started to ban abortion in wake of the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade, volunteers in California are mobilizing to help people who want to travel to their state for care. Californian Lee Mitchell posted a message on Facebook, written in code: "If you are a person who suddenly finds yourself with a need to go camping in another state friendly towards camping, just know that I will happily drive you, support you, and not talk about the camping trip to anyone ever." Abortion remains legal in California. But her veiled offer was focused on women in other states, who now might be desperate for access to abortion services — for whatever reason. She envisioned picking them up at the airport in San Francisco, driving them to a local clinic for an abortion, then offering them a place to sleep on her couch, and maybe even a hand to hold. (Dembosky, 6/27)
ABC News: Poor Women Of Color Will Bear Brunt Of Abortion Bans Following Roe Reversal: Expert
Forty-nine percent of abortion patients have an income below the poverty line, according to the Guttmacher Institute. And in Louisiana, where Haywood lives, the maternal mortality rate is one of the worst in the nation, especially among Black women. The state has since shuttered its abortion clinics, though a Louisiana judge temporarily blocked enforcement of the state's "trigger" abortion ban Monday. (Scott and Su, 6/28)
More reaction from women —
The Washington Post: What Moms Texted Their Daughters After The Supreme Court Ruling
On Friday, Mini Timmaraju, president of the abortion rights organization Naral Pro-Choice America, was on a Zoom call with her team when the Supreme Court’s decision overturning Roe v. Wade came out. She said the news “felt like a gut punch.” But what drove that home for her in the moment was a text she received from her mom, Chaya Timmaraju, shortly after. “This is no country for women … any longer,” the text read. (Tingley, 6/27)
NBC News: Ireland Baldwin Opens Up About Rape, Having Two Abortions: ‘I Chose Me’
Ireland Baldwin revealed that she had two abortions, one as the result of rape and the other during a former relationship. ... Baldwin said that her first abortion happened after she was raped as a teenager and that she told no one at the time what had happened. She said she later got pregnant in a relationship that has since ended. “We were very unhappy together,” she said in the video. “And he made it pretty clear that he never wanted kids or marriage — he barely wanted to be in a serious relationship.” “I chose to get an abortion because I know exactly what it felt like to be born between two people who hated each other,” she said. Baldwin’s parents are the actors Alec Baldwin and Kim Basinger, who married in 1993 and divorced in 2002, when Ireland was 7. (Sole, 6/27)
Fox News: Hollywood Stars Share Their Abortion Stories After Supreme Court Roe V. Wade Ruling
Entertainment industry professionals began sharing their own abortion experiences across social media platforms in efforts to slam SCOTUS following the Supreme Court ruling to overturn Roe v. Wade last week. The decision made by SCOTUS on Friday effectively ended recognition of a constitutional right to abortion which has been in place since 1973, and gives individual states the power to allow, limit or ban the practice altogether. "Dancing with the Stars" pro Cheryl Burke called the ruling a "personal attack" while sharing her abortion story in a three-minute-long TikTok. (Wright, 6/28)
