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Once again, Republican legislators are attempting to insert themselves between public health and the well-being of Tennessee’s children. First it was forbidding mask mandates in schools. Then it was prohibiting teens from making a choice to receive a COVID-19 vaccination. Now, as reported by The Tennessean on June 22, House Speaker Cameron Sexton, Majority Leader Rep. William Lamberth, Republican Caucus Chairman Jeremy Faison, and Rep. Jason Zachary have asked Governor Bill Lee to block the Tennessee Department of Health from providing COVID-19 vaccinations to children under the age of 5 — falsely stating children are not at risk of death or hospitalization from COVID-19. (Michelle Fiscus, MD FAAP, 6/27)

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) did not get to where she is by misreading the public mood. She understands well how unpopular Republicans’ support for upending Roe v. Wade is. And she will make Republicans face the consequences of their radicalism. In a Dear Colleague letter released on Monday, Pelosi writes that she intends to bring several abortion measures to the floor. First, she will bring legislation that “protects women’s most intimate and personal data stored in reproductive health apps” to address fears that such information “could be used against women by a sinister prosecutor in a state that criminalizes abortion.” Pelosi is certainly right that Americans are worried about the government or big business accumulating data on them. Will Republicans allow the government to seize such personal information? (Jennifer Rubin, 6/28)

This is the true story of a 27-year-old Texas woman and her abortion. She recently overcame a challenge that millions of other girls and women in the United States now face: getting an abortion in a state where lawmakers are closing off access to the procedure. Texas enacted a law outlawing most abortions in September 2021, so women there have navigated obstacles that many more women across the country are now starting to encounter. (Ora DeKornfeld, Emily Holzknecht and Jonah M. Kessel, 6/29)

In May, weeks before the U.S. Supreme Court discarded the law to return abortion policy to the states, Missouri lawmakers talked about putting an abortion ban in the state constitution. “Let the voters decide whether they want to make it clear that there is no right to abortion in the Missouri Constitution,” said state Sen. Bob Onder, a Republican. Abortion opponents in Missouri were obviously worried about the Kansas Supreme Court’s ruling that the right to an abortion is “fundamental” in the state. The judges said abortion could be regulated, but only after meeting a “strict scrutiny” standard to protect patients. (6/29)

As a hospital nurse who has been caring for patients for over 40 years, it’s my job to help and support patients during some of their most challenging moments, when they have to make critical decisions about their health. I never imagined we would live in a country where women would not be guaranteed the right to make their own personal healthcare decisions and could be forced to give birth to a child against their will, depending on the state they reside in. (Martha Baker, 6/28)