Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Arizona Senate Rescinds Abortion Ban With Little Help From GOP Lawmakers
A 160-year-old abortion ban written before Arizona became a state that punishes doctors with prison time is now one step away from being repealed after a pair of Republicans in the state Senate on Wednesday crossed party lines to join Democrats in voting it down.聽(Gomez, 5/1)
Abortion news from Florida 鈥
On Tuesday, the reality of Florida鈥檚 new six-week abortion ban hit the radar of pregnant women seeking care. At a Planned Parenthood clinic in West Palm Beach, doctors scrambled to provide abortions for anyone pregnant beyond six weeks. Women crowded into a waiting room, returning for a pill or surgical procedure. ... Yet, even with the scramble, the clinic turned some women away, a glimpse into the future of reproductive care in Florida. (Krischer Goodman, 5/1)
Florida's abortion ban after six-weeks gestation is in effect as of May 1. That means the time a person has to decide whether or not to have an abortion in Florida is 鈥 at most 鈥 two weeks. What? It has to do with how the medical community dates a pregnancy. (Simmons-Duffin, 5/1)
On the day that Florida began to enforce its six-week abortion ban, Vice President Kamala Harris delivered a searing attack on former President Donald J. Trump in Jacksonville, calling the measure 鈥渁nother Trump abortion ban鈥 and saying he was forcing women to live a 鈥渉orrific reality鈥 without access to essential medical care. 鈥淎s much harm as he has already caused, a second Trump term would be even worse,鈥 Ms. Harris said to about 200 supporters at a convention center in a historically African American neighborhood. (Nehamas, 5/1)
From North Carolina and New Hampshire 鈥
A federal judge has struck down parts of a North Carolina law restricting patients' access to the abortion pill mifepristone, which has become the subject of legal battles nationwide. Chief U.S. District Judge Catherine Eagles on Tuesday struck down the state's requirements that mifepristone be prescribed only by doctors and only in person, as well as a requirement that patients have an in-person follow-up appointment. She said the requirements conflicted with federal law because the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) previously considered and rejected them. (Pierson, 5/1)
Lawmakers in the New Hampshire House will hold a public hearing Wednesday on a proposal that sparked contentious debate in the Senate over whether health care providers should be required to report certain abortion data to the state. Republican senators approved a version of Senate Bill 461 that would require providers to report the date and place of each abortion they perform, the pregnant patient鈥檚 age and state of residence, the abortion method used, any prescriptions written to induce abortion, and the gestational age of the aborted fetus. (Porter, 5/1)
Today marks two years since the Dobbs leak 鈥
Two years after a leaked draft of a U.S. Supreme Court opinion signaled that the nation鈥檚 abortion landscape was about to shift dramatically, the issue is still consuming the nation鈥檚 courts, legislatures and political campaigns 鈥 and changing the course of lives. The Supreme Court鈥檚 decision in the Dobbs v. Jackson Women鈥檚 Health Organization case was released officially on June 24, 2022, upending nearly 50 years of abortion being legal nationwide. But the world caught a glimpse of it about six weeks earlier, on May 2, after a news outlet published a leaked draft. (Mulvihill, 5/2)
The divide between Democrats and Republicans on abortion is at its starkest point in years, according to a new survey on the issue that鈥檚 poised to play a big role in the 2024 presidential race.聽There鈥檚 a 50-point gap between the two major parties, a figure that is 鈥渓arger than ever,鈥 according to research from the Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI). (Mueller, 5/2)