Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Viewpoints: What's The Real Reason Roe Was Reversed?; Abortion Bans Go Hand In Hand With No Paid Leave
We鈥檝e had a year now to contemplate the Supreme Court鈥檚 ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women鈥檚 Health Organization and what led up to the justices鈥 decision to overturn 50 years of jurisprudence and end the constitutional right to abortion. Many abortion rights supporters and others on the left blame the court鈥檚 Republican-appointed majority, seeing those judges as too politically partisan. But we see something a bit different going on. To really understand why the Supreme Court overruled Roe v. Wade, we think it鈥檚 crucial to see Dobbs as the triumph of two social movements and the rising influence of a distinctive kind of judge. (Robert L. Tsai and Mary Ziegler, 6/25)
This double whammy of mandated birth and state neglect has severe consequences. In states limiting abortion access, maternal mortality rates are higher and birthing people are more likely to have children who are born too early or who die within their first year of life. (Alina Schnake-Mahl and Jaquelyn Jahn, 6/26)
Millions of people don鈥檛 live within reach of an abortion clinic, and so we live in a worse world, a world where millions of people cannot live their lives like full people. And for as long as we remain in this world, the loss will accumulate. I want to be able to know precisely how cruelly we have robbed ourselves. (Alexandra Petri, 6/24)
Zealots of any sort rarely consider the law of unintended consequences. It鈥檚 no different for anti-abortion zealots. For now, Arizona allows licensed physicians to perform abortions up to 15 weeks. But that law, as Eloisa Lopez, executive director of the Abortion Fund of Arizona and Pro-Choice Arizona, told The Arizona Republic鈥檚 Stephanie Innes, is 鈥渉anging by a thread.鈥 (RJ Montini, 6/24)
Most Republican voters 鈥 84 percent of them, according to a 2022 poll on behalf of the organization where I work 鈥 support safe and accessible birth control. But after Roe v. Wade was overturned last year, Republicans in Congress blocked legislation that would have enshrined a federal right to contraception. (Hadley Heath Manning, 6/24)