Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
In Spate Of Briefs For High Court, Women Make Abortion Debate Personal
Kate Banfield and Tammy ÂRomo-Alcala have never met. But more than 25 years ago, the two women found themselves in the same position: freshmen in college, pregnant and scared of derailing all they had worked toward. Both women, on a day each recalls vividly, walked into a Dallas abortion clinic. It’s what happened when they walked out, and in the weeks and decades that followed, that places them on opposite ends of the most significant abortion case to be heard by the Supreme Court in a quarter of a century. (Vargas, 4/11)
In other news, The Associated Press looks at deaths related to the anti-abortion movement, a legislative proposal for a 20-week ban in Pennsylvania is pulled amid veto threats and some Republican-led states seek an alternative to Planned Parenthood —
At least 11 people have been killed in violence against abortion providers in the U.S. since 1993, according to the National Abortion Federation. Here are some details of those attacks. (4/12)
A legislative proposal to place new limits on abortion in the state was left in limbo Monday after Republican House leaders pulled it from a final vote amid a veto warning from the Democratic governor. The measure would ban elective abortions after 20 weeks, compared with 24 weeks in current law, and outlaw procedures that abort fetuses by removing body parts. The legislation had been on a fast track since it was introduced a little over a week ago. (Scolforo and Levy, 4/11)
Pennsylvania Physician General Rachel Levine on Monday morning joined the chorus of voices against HB 1948, the hastily moved bill that would ban most abortions after 20 weeks, four weeks earlier than the current limit. It would also sharply curtail use of dilation and extraction, a medical procedure used to terminate a second-trimester pregnancy. (Dribben, 4/11)
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and his GOP-led legislature want to put their health department between Planned Parenthood and the federal funds it gets to provide family planning services in the state. Walker signed a law in February that requires the state Department of Health Services to apply for federal family planning service funds that are now sent to Planned Parenthood. If the state wins the grant, the law prohibits the department from contracting with providers like Planned Parenthood that also perform abortions. (Evans, 4/11)
