Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
HHS Releases Policy Ensuring Abortion Access For Migrant Youth
The U.S. government took steps Thursday to ensure that pregnant migrant youths who are in its custody but not accompanied by parents can access abortion services by assigning them to shelters in states that still allow the procedure. Pregnant migrants under 18 who want an abortion should also be provided transportation, if necessary, from states such as Texas, where abortion is largely banned, to a state where it is legal, according to the written guidance from the Office of Refugee Resettlement. (Lee, 11/10)
New Department of Health and Human Services guidelines released Thursday instruct the government to ensure unaccompanied migrant children in its care have access to abortion, even if it means taking them to another state. (Coudriet, 11/10)
More on abortion and reproductive rights 鈥
Abortion rights supporters had a successful run of ballot measures this year. In every state where voters were asked to weigh in directly on abortion rights, they supported measures that protect those rights and rejected initiatives that could threaten them. Those victories have abortion rights advocates looking at where they can next take the fight directly to voters. (McCammon, 11/11)
Just days after Republicans won supermajorities in the Florida Legislature, the state Senate is considering stricter abortion limits during the upcoming legislative session. Incoming Florida Senate President Kathleen Passidomo (R-Naples) on Friday said she would support restricting abortions after 12 weeks of pregnancy as long as there are exceptions for victims of rape and incest. Florida currently bans the procedure at 15 weeks but allows no exceptions except to save a mother鈥檚 life, prevent serious injury or if the fetus has an irregularity that is fatal. (Sarkissian, 11/11)
Mark your calendar for Dec. 23. That鈥檚 the day Proposal 3, the constitutional amendment reviving Roe v. Wade, is added to Michigan鈥檚 founding document. There is debate over what happens to certain laws when the amendment goes into effect. But at the most basic level, Michiganders receive 鈥渁 fundamental right to reproductive freedom,鈥 according to the full amendment text. (Orner, 11/11)
A progressive nonprofit cemented its status as a key driver of state health policies in the midterms, winning popular votes on ballot questions dealing with abortion rights, Medicaid expansion and medical debt. (Moreno, 11/10)
Idaho drafted its original abortion statute at the First Territorial Session in Lewiston 鈥 25 years before Idaho became a state and drafted the state constitution 鈥 in the winter months between December 1863 and early 1864. The wording of the statute is almost identical to statutes several other states were passing to ban abortion around the same time, including Montana and Nevada.聽Like the ban that took effect in Idaho in August, that law allowed for abortion to save the woman鈥檚 life, but not for rape and incest. (Moseley-Morris, 11/14)