Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Perspectives: The Effects Of Overturning Roe Have Begun; US Should Follow France On Abortion
It鈥檚 chaos out there. The end of Roe v. Wade was foreseen, but in wide swaths of the country, it has still created wrenching and potentially tragic uncertainties. There have been numerous reports of patients screaming and sobbing in desperation when clinics canceled their appointments. Recipes for potentially deadly herbal abortions are going viral on TikTok. A group of hospitals, pharmacies and clinics in Missouri, a state where a so-called trigger law immediately banned abortion upon Roe鈥檚 demise, briefly stopped providing emergency contraception. In some states, doctors who perform in vitro fertilization fear they might be prosecuted for discarding unused embryos. (Michelle Goldberg, 7/1)
When the United States Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last week, a quote attributed to Simone de Beauvoir quickly circulated on French social media. 鈥淣ever forget that all it takes is a political, economic or religious crisis for women鈥檚 rights to be called into question,鈥 it said. 鈥淭hese rights are never fully acquired. You must remain vigilant your whole life.鈥 (Pamela Druckerman, 6/30)
I'm still trying to process the news about the Supreme Court's decision to overturn the landmark case Roe v. Wade and hand over a woman's聽right to an abortion聽to聽each individual state. (Kyra Watts, 6/30)
Almost as soon as it became clear the Supreme Court would overturn Roe v. Wade, a number of the United States鈥 largest corporations began to announce they would pay for employees and their dependents in states that would lose abortion access to travel and obtain one. Starbucks stepped up. Amazon. Citigroup, too. That number increased last week, after the decision was announced, with companies including Bank of America and Dick鈥檚 Sporting Goods announcing they would join others already offering the benefit. (Helaine Olen, 6/30)
The Maryland Section of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, representing obstetrician-gynecologists across our state, condemns the U.S. Supreme Court鈥檚 decision in the case of Dobbs v. Jackson Women鈥檚 Health Organization, which represents a direct attack on the patient-physician relationship and the practice of medicine (鈥滱bortion is my birthright,鈥 June 29). (6/30)
With the reversal of Roe v. Wade, one group that may feel unsure about how and whether to discuss the decline of women鈥檚 rights is parents. It鈥檚 tempting to assume that adult issues such as abortion are inappropriate or irrelevant from a child鈥檚 perspective. But as a developmental psychology professor and a (currently pregnant) parent, I would argue that it is critical to talk with your school-age children about abortion rights. (Katherine Kinzler, 7/1)
Also 鈥
Connecticut cancer patients soon will have new treatment options. Hartford HealthCare and Yale New Haven Health received regulatory approval on April 12 for the state鈥檚 first proton therapy center in Wallingford. What the partners fail to mention in their news release is that a competitor could beat them to market with a similar facility 45 miles west in Danbury 鈥攅xcept the state is running interference. (Jaimie Cavanaugh and Daryl James, 6/30)
Anna Pham is not your typical activist. At just 11 years old, she became passionate about gun control after the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in 2018. Joining other teens in March for Our Lives, a national student-led movement against gun violence, Anna turned to activism because she was 鈥渢ired of seeing my representatives not doing anything and just tweeting.鈥 Now a rising junior at Murrieta Valley High School, Anna has led crowds of up to 8,000 protesters demanding gun safety reform 鈥 and she鈥檚 part of a generation that may be our last hope for meaningful change. (Isaac Lozano, 6/30)