Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Abortion Rights Amendment Blocked From New York Ballot; Appeal Planned
A measure that would codify abortion rights in the New York constitution, as well as other equal rights, was tossed off the ballot Tuesday, a blow to Democrats’ efforts to get the question to voters in November. A conservative judge in upstate Livingston County rejected the measure in a court ruling, questioning the legality of the ballot question. Democrats hope the measure will drive out turnout in a critical election year where New York will have a half dozen battleground House seats that could determine control of the chamber next year. (Mahoney, 5/7)
A lawyer for the state of Idaho on Tuesday urged a federal appeals court to revive a 2023 state law making it a crime to help a minor cross state lines for an abortion without her parent's consent, which a lower court judge had blocked in November. "The law is narrow, and one would think, unobjectionable," Idaho Deputy Solicitor General Joshua Turner told the three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Seattle. (Pierson, 5/7)
With Florida’s six-week abortion ban now in place, telehealth appointments with out-of-state physicians and mail-order abortion pills could play increasingly important roles in allowing women there to safely end their pregnancies. Advocates on both sides of the abortion debate agree that the practice is likely to be challenged in court, as red states assert their right to curtail abortion and blue states attempt to protect abortion providers. (Szabo, 5/7)
Recurring anti-abortion protests outside a downtown women’s health clinic may soon be dampened by a new ordinance limiting nearby loud sounds. (Sheridan, 5/7)
In other reproductive health news —
The Iowa Department of Health and Human Services will distribute more than $680,000 to four crisis pregnancy centers under its More Options for Maternal Support, or MOMS, program in the next two years. (Krebs, 5/7)
When a baby is born, a mother’s breast milk helps the child grow safe and healthy. But many new moms have trouble breastfeeding their newborns. A newly opened dispensary at HSHS St. Elizabeth’s Hospital in O’Fallon, Illinois, is offering donated milk to families in the Metro East who need breast milk for their babies. (Fentem, 5/8)
