Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Planned Parenthood Draws Patients From 6 States To New Kansas Clinic
A new Planned Parenthood clinic in southeast Kansas will be the closest abortion access point for many people in the South and will provide easier access to reproductive health care for southeast Kansans who previously had to travel to Overland Park, a Kansas City suburb. The center, which opened Monday in Pittsburg, expects to have patients from six states in its first five days — Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Texas and Louisiana. (Hills, 8/19)
Whether scrambling to get abortions before six weeks or having to travel hundreds of miles to clinics in other states, abortion funds say patients need a lot more help since Florida's ban went into effect. (Colombini, 8/19)
Cobalt Abortion fund for the first time has placed a cap on how much financial assistance it can provide each month, due to increased demand. (Brown, 8/19)
Also —
Up and down the ballot, women running for office this year are opening up about their own reproductive health, sharing their experiences with IVF, miscarriage and abortion — topics that for years on the campaign trail were considered, at best, uncouth and, at worst, potentially damaging. But after the Supreme Court reversed abortion protections two years ago, that calculus — Can I talk about these deeply personal issues and still win an election? — has changed. (Wells and Knowles, 8/20)
For nearly 50 years, the Hyde Amendment has been considered an unassailable fixture of the United States budget. First passed in 1976, just three years after the now-defunct Roe v. Wade ruling, the amendment prohibits federal programs from covering the cost of most abortions, with exceptions for cases of rape, incest, and life-threatening pregnancies. Although the original amendment applied only to Medicaid, Hyde’s restrictions now extend to other programs, including Medicare, the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program, and the Indian Health Service. To many of its supporters, the amendment serves as both a guard against taxpayers funding abortions and a broad-brush check on abortion access. (Tu, 8/19)
