Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
8,000 Women A Month Skirt Abortion Bans Via Telehealth, Survey Finds
Thousands of women in states with abortion bans and restrictions are receiving abortion pills in the mail from states that have laws protecting prescribers, a new report shows. Tuesday’s release of the #WeCount survey shows about 8,000 women a month in states that severely restrict abortion or place limits on having one through telehealth were getting the pills by mail by the end of 2023, the first time a number has been put on how often the medical system workaround is being used. (Ungar and Mulvihill, 5/14)
In the 18 months since Roe v. Wade was overturned, the number of abortions in the United States has continued to grow, according to new data, even as 14 states have banned abortion completely. Tuesday’s report from the Society for Family Planning’s WeCount project found much of that growth was likely related to telemedicine, which accounted for 19 percent of all abortions nationwide by December. (Weixel, 5/14)
Meanwhile in legal news —
When it was Shawnna Bolick’s turn to speak, the words tumbled out of her for 20 minutes. The conservative lawmaker was in the middle of a heated debate in the Republican-led Arizona Senate on a bill to repeal an 1864 law banning nearly all abortions. ... Shawnna Bolick’s vote to repeal the near-total ban her spouse helped reinstate underscores the increasingly chaotic philosophical and legal landscape surrounding abortion access in Arizona. (Yamat, 5/15)
An anti-abortion activist who led a blockade of a reproductive health clinic in Washington, D.C., in 2020 and drew widespread attention after the authorities found human fetuses at her home was sentenced on Tuesday to nearly five years in prison. Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly of U.S. District Court in Washington sentenced the activist, Lauren Handy, 30, of Virginia, to 57 months in prison for her role in the blockade, officials said. (Ortiz, 5/14)
A three-judge panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is scheduled to hear arguments in September in a battle about whether Florida violated federal laws by blocking Medicaid coverage for transgender people seeking hormone therapy and puberty blockers. (5/14)
