Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Most Of Country Has Been Put On Hold, But Culture Wars March On
A partisan fight over voting in Wisconsin was the first issue linked to the coronavirus to make it to the Supreme Court. Efforts to limit abortion during the pandemic could eventually land in the justices’ hands. Disputes over guns and religious freedom also are popping up around the country. The virus outbreak has put much of American life on hold, but the combatants in the nation’s culture wars aren’t taking a cease-fire. (Sherman and Gresko, 4/9)
A federal judge again restrained Texas from banning abortion during the coronavirus public-health crisis, this time adopting a more limited approach that allows the state to prohibit the procedure in some circumstances, but not others. The new temporary restraining order issued late Thursday by U.S. District Judge Lee Yeakel in Austin comes after a federal appeals court overturned a broader order he issued against Texas on March 30. (Kendall, 4/9)
Judge Lee Yeakel blocked the state from enforcing the order specifically "as a categorical ban on all abortions provided by Plaintiffs" and specifically against those providing medication abortions or providing surgical abortions to abortion-seekers who would reach 22 weeks since their last menstrual period -- the cutoff to receive an abortion in Texas -- by the order's expiration on April 21. (Kelly, 4/9)
The ruling, another pivot in a now dizzying legal battle, is narrower than one issued last week, which was overturned by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. It allows medication abortions, in which doctors give women pills, as well as surgical abortions for women who would be too far along in their pregnancies to legally obtain one by the time the state’s emergency ban on nonessential surgeries is lifted April 21. (Blackman, 4/9)
Governors across the country are banning elective surgery as a means of halting the spread of the coronavirus. But in a handful of states that ban is being extended to include a ban on all abortions. So far the courts have intervened to keep most clinics open. The outlier is Texas, where the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit this week upheld the governor's abortion ban. (Totenberg, 4/10)
State officials are investigating abortion clinics in Louisiana during the coronavirus pandemic to determine whether they are violating the state's stay-at-home order by performing the procedure, amid a push by Republicans across the country to deem the procedure non-essential. (Karlin, 4/9)
