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Many have taken to social media to echo Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s vows to tighten border security and deliver harsher penalties for criminals trafficking fentanyl. To share how fentanyl poisoned their son or daughter, others have joined candidates at roundtables, on campaign videos and even rallies like ones held recently by Vice President Kamala Harris. One group, Families Against Fentanyl, put up billboards during both political conventions to highlight the unrelenting drug crisis. (Ovalle, 10/28)

Sarah August developed an opioid addiction after being prescribed painkillers in her late 20s. She began using heroin after her doctor took her off the medication. Eventually, she decided to seek treatment. But it was hard to find the right option. “I bounced around from place to place, because there is no long-term program,” she said. (Cuno-Booth, 10/28)

Kamala Harris has spent the last 99 days of her candidacy talking about abortion. She’s taking that message up a notch in the final week of her campaign. Borrowing from the impassioned abortion-focused address she gave in Houston on Friday, Harris’ revamped stump speech now cuts even deeper on reproductive rights. At a rally in Ann Arbor, Michigan Monday night, Harris slammed Texas’ abortion ban, which prohibits the procedure at conception with no exceptions for rape and incest, punishable by up to 99 prison years in prison; rebuked Trump for “[refusing] to acknowledge the pain and suffering he has caused”; and appealed to the “men of America” to protect the women in their lives. (Messerly, 10/28)

Amendment 4 is a proposal to change Florida's constitution. It is titled "Amendment to Limit Government Interference with Abortion" and states "no law shall prohibit, penalize, delay, or restrict abortion before viability or when necessary to protect the patient's health, as determined by the patient's healthcare provider." The amendment does not affect a current constitutional provision that permits a law requiring parents to be notified before a minor can receive an abortion. (Geisel and Rodriguez, 10/28)

Patients at A Woman’s Choice ─ an abortion provider in Danville, Virginia ─ can leave messages in a journal for the people who come after them. "I can tell you this much, you will get through this," reads one anonymous handwritten note. "You have made the best choice for you in your circumstances, and you have a whole lot of life left to experience and enjoy." The messages are a way to build community among women who may not have a great deal of outside support, said clinic manager Danielle Floyd. (Walsh, 10/28)

The 1911 Nevada statute is one of a wide variety of laws that have been used in rare cases across the country to prosecute women for trying to end a pregnancy. (Kitchener, 10/29)

Donald Trump’s pledge alarmed public health professionals, including Dr. Jerome Adams, his own surgeon general. ... Adams has been a strong supporter of the development and distribution of Covid vaccines, and others, including by testifying at a 2021 House hearing on how to encourage Covid vaccine uptake. On Monday, Adams spoke at a conference of the American Public Health Association—which endorsed his 2017 nomination as Surgeon General—on his concerns about Kennedy, especially his anti-vaccine stances. (Metraux, 10/28)

�鶹Ů�� Health News: Vance Wrongly Blames Rural Hospital Closures On Immigrants In The Country Illegally

During a recent presidential campaign rally in Wisconsin, Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) was asked how a Trump administration would protect rural health care access in the face of hospital closures, such as two this year in Eau Claire and Chippewa Falls. In response, he turned to immigration. “Now, you might not think that rural health care access is an immigration issue,” said Vance, former President Donald Trump’s running mate. “I guarantee it is an immigration issue, because we’re bankrupting a lot of hospitals by forcing these hospitals to provide care for people who don’t have the legal right to be in our country.” (Whitehead, 10/29)

As the 2024 election heads into its final weeks, the direction of policies affecting the health of millions of Americans is at stake. The next president and Congress will have the power to put their mark on major health care programs like Medicare and Medicaid that combined cover nearly 150 million Americans. They’ll be able to direct resources for how the United States fights the drug overdose crisis and how the country prepares for the next pandemic. (Levi, 10/28)

The point of campaign rhetoric is to convince people to vote for one side or the other, catering to hopes those words will turn into policy. The ads and news clips blaring at voters are impossible to avoid. But what happens when a vital issue is all but missing from the debate? That’s a question stakeholders in the healthcare industry need to at least consider this election season when immigration, inflation, crime, abortion and the fate of democracy are the dominant themes on the hustings. (McAuliff, 10/28)