Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Montana Supreme Court Declares Abortion Restrictions Unconstitutional
A majority of Montana Supreme Court justices ruled Monday that a trio of abortion restrictions passed by Republican lawmakers in 2021 were unconstitutional, concluding a yearslong legal challenge brought by health care providers and reproductive rights supporters. If allowed to take effect, the bills would have curtailed abortions after 20 weeks, added regulations to medication abortions and required providers to offer patients the chance to view an ultrasound and listen to a fetal heart tone before filling out a state-written form about their decision. Planned Parenthood of Montana sued to block the legislation from taking effect soon after Gov. Greg Gianforte signed the bills into law. They have been sidelined in court since 2021. (Silvers, 6/9)
Care for All Community Clinic, Wisconsin's fifth and Milwaukee's third abortion clinic, will begin seeing patients on Tuesday, June 10. The clinic, located at 756 N. 35th St. on the city's near west side, initially will offer abortion care up to 14 weeks, including medication abortions up to 11 weeks and six days. The independent, nonprofit clinic will be offering abortion care up to the state limit of 21 weeks and six days within three months. (Van Egeren, 6/10)
Ohio Republicans want to reinstate a 24-hour waiting period for abortions, despite a judge's order blocking it. The proposal from Reps. Mike Odioso, R-Green Twp., and Josh Williams, R-Sylvania Twp., would require doctors to provide patients seeking an abortion with information about the "physical and psychological risks" at least 24 hours before an abortion pill or procedure. (Balmert, 6/10)
Legal challenges have failed, elections haven鈥檛 moved the needle and the fight for a narrow clarification shows how immovable these laws are. (Klibanoff, 6/10)
A Justice Department employee in north Texas has been charged with murder for allegedly spiking his pregnant girlfriend's drink with an abortion drug. Justin Anthony Banta, a 38-year-old I.T. worker at the U.S. Bureau of Prisons, was arrested on Friday after a months-long investigation by sheriffs in Parker County, part of the Fort Worth metro area. Authorities said Banta's then-girlfriend had accused him of putting crushed-up abortion pills in her drink last October after she refused to terminate her pregnancy, leading to the death of her six-week-old fetus two days later. (Dodds, 6/9)
Three years after the fall of Roe v Wade and months after an election that heavily focused on the fight over abortion rights, men and women have never diverged more on their support for access to the procedure, according to new polling from Gallup released Monday. Sixty-one percent of women now identify as 鈥減ro-choice鈥, but only 41% of men say the same, Gallup found. The same percentage of women identified as 鈥減ro-choice鈥 in 2022, just after the decision to overturn Roe was leaked, but at the time, 48% of men also did so. (Sherman, 6/9)
In other reproductive health news 鈥
When children of wealthy families reach adulthood, they often benefit from the largesse of parents in the form of a trust fund. It鈥檚 another way they get a leg up on less affluent peers, who may receive nothing at all 鈥 or even be expected to support their families. But what if all children 鈥 regardless of their family鈥檚 circumstances 鈥 could get a financial boost when they turn 18? That鈥檚 the idea behind a House GOP proposal backed by President Donald Trump. (Balingit, 6/9)
More American mothers reported worse mental health in 2023 than in 2016 in a national survey, though many said they were in good health, according to a study in JAMA Internal Medicine. ... In 2023, 26 percent of the mothers who responded said their mental health was 鈥渆xcellent,鈥 compared with 38 percent of mothers in 2016. While 19 percent of mothers reported good mental health in 2016, some 26 percent said the same in 2023. (Docter-Loeb, 6/9)