Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Republicans Tempered Talk About Abortion
Overturning Roe is one of the crowning achievementsof Donald Trump鈥檚 presidency. No one at the Republican National Convention is talking about it. Heading into the final day of the Republican Party鈥檚 first national gathering since the Supreme Court鈥檚 landmark decision, which has allowed more than a third of states to ban nearly all abortions, the issue has barely received a passing mention. Main-stage speakers have instead leaned into economic populism, isolationism and 鈥 frustratingly, for evangelicals and other social conservatives 鈥 social libertarianism. (Messerly, 7/18)
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Though a state panel this week revamped a financial impact statement that will appear on the November ballot with a proposed constitutional amendment on abortion rights, Attorney General Ashley Moody鈥檚 office argued Thursday that a legal battle about an earlier version of the statement should continue. (Saunders, 7/18)
Kansas isn鈥檛 enforcing a new law requiring abortion providers to ask patients why they want to terminate their pregnancies, as a legal challenge against that rule and other older requirements makes its way through the courts. Attorneys for the state and for providers challenging the new law along with other requirements announced a deal Thursday. (Hanna, 7/18)
Women鈥檚 health in the United States is in a 鈥減erilous place鈥 as preventable deaths keep rising, and nowhere is it worse than in Mississippi, according to a new state scorecard on women鈥檚 health and reproductive care from The Commonwealth Fund. The scorecard ranks all 50 states and Washington, D.C., on how well they provide聽reproductive care and overall health care to women. The highest-ranking states include Massachusetts, Vermont and Rhode Island. (O鈥機onnell-Domenech, 7/18)
One of the last remaining birthing units in southern Alabama will close next month to qualify for federal funding that will save the hospital鈥檚 emergency services, but doctors warn the move may cost newborns and pregnant women essential access to obstetric care. ... The board said closure was necessary for the hospital to qualify for much needed federal funding that is designated for rural emergency hospitals, defined as facilities with fewer than 50 beds that provide 24/7 emergency care and no inpatient services, including obstetrics. (Riddle, 7/18)
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Nico Olalia had just finished her initial nurse training in the Philippines when she realized her aspirations were growing bigger than her home archipelago. 鈥淭here are a lot of trans Filipinos, but they鈥檙e always known in the beauty industry, and they鈥檙e very seldom found in the professional side,鈥 Olalia said. So she moved back to the United States, where she was born, for better career prospects. (Deng, 7/18)