Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Anti-Abortion Investors Press Retail Giants To Quit Selling Mifepristone
A group of faith-based investors are warning some of the largest US retailers including Costco Wholesale Corp. and Walmart Inc. against selling the abortion pill mifepristone. Companies offering the drug risk reputation and legal repercussions, according to an Aug. 2 letter sent to chief executive officers at the two retail giants, as well as Kroger Co., Albertsons Co. and medical distribution company McKesson Corp. (Green and Kishan, 8/6)
More than 400 health care providers called on the Biden administration to 鈥渁ctively and unequivocally鈥 support an abortion rights policy that goes further than Roe v. Wade and restores access to abortion later in pregnancy. Advocacy group Physicians for Reproductive Health, along with 430 physicians providing sexual and reproductive health care, on Tuesday sent a letter to President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, urging them to do better on abortion care and gender-affirming care. (Vagianos, 8/6)
Abortion updates from New York and California 鈥
Planned Parenthood announced this week that its only Manhattan clinic would stop performing abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy, a significant shift in a state that has maintained and even expanded access to abortion in the two years since the Supreme Court eliminated the constitutional right to the procedure. The clinic, Planned Parenthood鈥檚 Manhattan Health Center, can no longer afford the 鈥渄eep sedation鈥 required to perform abortions beyond the 20-week mark, Wendy Stark, the president of Planned Parenthood of Greater New York, said in an interview. (Fahy, 8/7)
A bill that California lawmakers are expected to consider this month aims to make it easier to build reproductive health clinics. Debate over the legislation comes as out-of-state abortion seekers travel to California for care after the U.S. Supreme Court decision striking down federal abortion protections. (Mays, 8/7)
The proposal would make it a misdemeanor for protesters to get within 8 feet of people entering clinics, schools or religious institutions without their consent. (Ellis and Zahniser, 8/7)