�鶹Ů��

Republicans released a party platform on Monday that was much shorter and less detailed than those of the past, sidestepping many policy specifics and the potential internal fights that could have been triggered by a more detailed document. The 16-page platform makes only brief mention of abortion, long a top issue for the GOP. It softens language included in a 2016 version of the document that called for a constitutional amendment making clear that fetuses have due process rights. Instead of calling for a “human life amendment,” the new platform states that the 14th Amendment “guarantees that no person can be denied life or liberty without due process, and that the states are, therefore, free to pass laws protecting those rights.” (Restuccia and McCormik, 7/8)

A small but vocal contingent on the right is frustrated with the new Republican Party platform. There isn’t much they can do about it. Even as anti-abortion groups largely lined up behind former President Donald Trump’s platform on Monday, some prominent and rank-and-file evangelicals criticized the language for backpedaling on the GOP’s longstanding promise to use the federal government to stop abortion. (Messerly and Sentner, 7/8)

President Biden and other Democrats are increasingly focusing their attacks on an aggressive right-wing agenda called Project 2025 that is being pushed by allies of presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump — prompting Trump and his team to lash out in recent days at supporters of the effort. Many Democrats have assessed that the best message for their candidate — whether it is Biden, who is trailing in polls and facing calls to drop out after a damaging debate performance, or another candidate — is to focus on what Trump might do in a second term, particularly as it relates to abortion rights, retribution against his enemies, mass deportations and the environment. (Dawsey and Knowles, 7/8)

Ritu Sidgal volunteered at a hospice in California in high school, reading to patients and offering bedside comfort. After attending college in Missouri to study biology and global health, she applied to medical schools and eventually moved to Tampa, enrolling at the University of South Florida. She won’t graduate until 2027 but she’s already thinking of specializing in women’s reproductive health care as an obstetrician-gynecologist. (Ogozalek, 7/8)

A political committee leading efforts to pass a constitutional amendment on abortion rights raised $293,008 from June 22 through June 28 as it continues gearing up for an election battle. The Floridians Protecting Freedom political committee had raised a total of $38.271 million since being formed in spring 2023, while spending about $22.729 million. Much of the spending went to collecting and verifying petition signatures to put the proposed amendment on the November ballot. (7/8)

Year after year, while Roe v. Wade was the law of the land, Texas legislators passed measures limiting access to abortion — who could have one, how and where. And with the same cadence, they added millions of dollars to a program designed to discourage people from terminating pregnancies. Their budget infusions for the Alternatives to Abortion program grew with almost every legislative session — first gradually, then dramatically — from $5 million starting in 2005 to $140 million after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the right to an abortion. (Jaramillo, Kohler, Chou and Kegu, 7/9)

A solid majority of Americans oppose a federal abortion ban as a rising number support access to abortions for any reason, a new poll finds, highlighting a politically perilous situation for candidates who oppose abortion rights as the November election draws closer. Around 6 in 10 Americans think their state should generally allow a person to obtain a legal abortion if they don’t want to be pregnant for any reason, according to a new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. That’s an increase from June 2021, a year before the Supreme Court overturned the constitutional right to the procedure, when about half of Americans thought legal abortion should be possible under these circumstances. (Fernando and Thomson-Deveaux, 7/9)

�鶹Ů�� Health News: GOP’s Tim Sheehy Revives Discredited Abortion Claims In Pivotal Senate Race

Tim Sheehy, the Republican candidate seeking to unseat Democratic Sen. Jon Tester of Montana and give U.S. Senate control to the GOP, is campaigning on what he calls Tester’s and Democrats’ “extreme” position on abortion. In a televised debate June 8, Sheehy accused Tester and Democrats of voting for “elective abortions up to and including the moment of birth.” That statement prompted Tester to respond: “To say we’re killing babies at 40 weeks is total BS.” (Volz, 7/9)

�鶹Ů�� Health News: If Lawsuit Ends Federal Mandates On Birth Control Coverage, States Will Have The Say

David Engler had been pretty sure he didn’t want children. Then a frustrating school day two years ago helped seal the deal for the now 43-year-old substitute teacher. “It was wild. I had to call the office seven times to get kids pulled out,” he said. “The next day, I called Kaiser and said, ‘I’d like to know how much a vasectomy is.’” (Whitehead, 7/9)