Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
On The Trail: Rubio Takes On Planned Parenthood; Clinton Talks About Addiction Issues In Rural America
US Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, struggling to break through in the Republican presidential primary, delivered a conservative pitch to activists here Wednesday, rejecting climate-change legislation and gun control as ineffectual. Rubio also criticized Planned Parenthood as the purveyor of 鈥渁trocious practices,鈥 and said that Democrats would be to blame if a government shutdown occurs as a result of disagreements between the parties about funding the agency. (O'Sullivan, 8/27)
Growing together was a central theme: She said that creating more clean energy would be a boon to agriculture, that expanded broadband and Internet access would help rural communities, that comprehensive immigration reform would help stabilize the agricultural work force, and that a growing agriculture sector would help combat the drug dependency and addiction plaguing the country. ... 鈥淚 want to focus on the people of rural America,鈥 she said, her voice becoming hushed as she listed the devastation that drugs have caused in parts of the country. 鈥淢eth, pills, overdoses, lost lives, broken families.鈥 She pledged to improve treatment of addiction, and especially in making such facilities available in rural areas for addiction and mental health. (Corasaniti, 8/26)