April 1st – April 5th, 2024
New Reports and Resources
Kaiser Family Foundation: Women’s Views of Abortion Access and Policies in the Dobbs Era: Insights From the KFF Health Tracking Poll Nearly two years after the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization Supreme Court ruling overturned Roe v. Wade, eliminating federal constitutional protections for abortion, abortion is banned in 14 states and limited by gestational limits in 11 others. The latest polling from KFF finds that women in states where abortion is banned are more likely to report personal connections to people who have had difficulty accessing abortion services since the overturn of Roe. Recent research has documented that many women who live in states where abortion is banned have traveled to other states to secure abortions. This can be costly and require them to take time off from work, find childcare, and in some cases make multiple visits to get abortion services. There have also been reports of women who have been denied abortions even though they meet the state standards for exemptions. Previous reporting from the KFF Health Tracking Poll examines women’s views on abortion policy including by partisanship, which is one of the strongest predictors of these views. This analysis examines women’s views by geography—specifically whether they live in a state where abortion is currently banned, limited, or legal.
Upcoming Trainings and Conferences
Deep Canvass Institute 101: How to Have a Deep Canvass Conversation. April 16th – 18th. Virtual. MORE INFO HERE.
RJ News
The Hill: As Florida bans legal abortion, where will 84,000 women go? There were 84,000 abortions performed in Florida last year, including thousands for women who needed to travel from out of state, according to state data. Come May 1, almost all of those women will need to find somewhere else to go. Florida’s new law will be one of the most restrictive in the country and effectively amount to a complete ban. Six weeks gestation is before many women know they are pregnant, and the state will still require two in-person visits with the abortion provider 24 hours apart.
Reuters: Tennessee Court Weighs Blocking Abortion Ban During Pregnancy Complications A Tennessee state court on Thursday weighed a bid by a group of doctors and women to block officials from enforcing the state’s near-total ban on abortion in instances when dangerous pregnancy complications arise. Lawyers for seven women who were denied abortions following pregnancy complications and two doctors told the three-judge panel in Tennessee’s Twelfth Judicial District Court in Nashville that a medical exception in the state’s abortion ban was so vague that physicians were turning away patients seeking emergency care.
Minnesota Public Radio: For many Minnesota women, postpartum depression’s grip is real, but care can be elusive Data from the state’s pregnancy risk assessment monitoring system found about 11 percent of those responding between 2016 and 2020 reported experiencing postpartum depression but that there were significant disparities around income, race and ethnicity. Twenty-three percent of Native American and 18 percent of African American respondents reported experiencing postpartum depression compared to 9 percent of white respondents. The state report also found the percentage of low-income respondents who self-reported postpartum depression “almost doubled that of high-income respondents.”
Reuters: CVS Caremark To Cover Perrigo’s Birth Control Pill In US At Zero Cost For Plan Sponsors CVS Caremark, the pharmacy benefit management subsidiary of CVS Health Corp (CVS.N) will add Perrigo’s (PRGO.N) birth control pill to its preventive services oral contraceptives list and make it available at no cost for many plan sponsors, according to a pharmacy update on March 28. The U.S. FDA in July approved over-the-counter use of Perrigo’s drug Opill, making it the first oral contraceptive in the country which can be purchased without prescription.
NBC News: Florida abortion ban prompts two Southern states to prep for an influx of patients After the Florida Supreme Court cleared the way for a state ban on abortions after six weeks, clinics in North Carolina and Virginia say they are gearing up for an influx of patients. Once the law takes effect on May 1, Florida will no longer be a refuge for people seeking abortions across the South. The state currently allows abortions up to 15 weeks of pregnancy — a far less restrictive policy than those implemented in many nearby states, including Alabama, Georgia and Mississippi, since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022.
The Hill: Alabama Hospital To Stop IVF Treatments At The End Of 2024 Due To ‘Litigation Concerns’ An Alabama hospital said it plans to stop offering in vitro fertilization (IVF) treatments at the end of this year due to “litigation concerns” surrounding the therapy. Mobile Infirmary said “it will no longer be able to offer” IVF services in a news release on Wednesday. The decision follows Alabama’s Supreme Court ruling that people who destroy frozen embryos can be liable for wrongful death.
Marketplace: End of internet subsidies for low-income households threatens access to telehealth More than 23 million low-income households — urban, suburban, rural and tribal — are enrolled in the federal discount program Congress created in 2021 to bridge the nation’s digital connectivity gap. The program has provided $30 monthly subsidies for internet bills or $75 discounts in tribal and high-cost areas. But the program is expected to run out of money in April or May, according to the Federal Communications Commission. In January, FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel asked Congress to allocate $6 billion to keep the program running until the end of 2024. She said the subsidy gives Americans the “internet service they need to fully participate in modern life.” …In December, federal regulators surveyed program recipients and found that 22% reported no internet service before, and 72% said they used their ACP-subsidized internet to “schedule or attend health care appointments.”
The HIll: Backers Of Arizona Abortion Amendment Say They Have Signatures For Ballot Groups working to enshrine abortion rights in Arizona’s constitution said Tuesday they have collected enough signatures to put the amendment on the ballot in November. Arizona for Abortion Access — a coalition of organizations including the ACLU of Arizona, Reproductive Freedom for All Arizona and Planned Parenthood Advocates of Arizona — announced they have so far collected more than 500,000 voter signatures, with more than three months left until the July 3 submission deadline.
Washington Post: As obesity rises, Big Food and dietitians push “anti-diet” advice One company in particular, General Mills, maker of Cocoa Puffs and Lucky Charms cereals, has launched a multi-pronged campaign that capitalizes on the teachings of the anti-diet movement, an investigation by The Washington Post and The Examination, a nonprofit newsroom that covers global public health, has found.
Kansas City Star: Kansas Lawmakers Approve Bill Criminalizing Abortion Coercion Backed by a Republican majority, Kansas lawmakers approved legislation Monday making it illegal to coerce a woman into getting an abortion. GOP legislators sidestepped efforts from Democrats to criminalize all forms of reproductive coercion arguing the language would reinforce Kansas’ existing protections for abortion rights. The bill, which the Kansas House approved with a near-veto-proof majority Monday roughly along party lines, now heads to Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly’s desk. The Kansas Senate passed the measure last week.
Axios: ACA Enrollment Surge Brings Tradeoffs For Kids The ACA marketplace plans historically haven’t covered a large proportion of kids because they’re eligible for Medicaid at higher income levels than adults.
- As ACA enrollment surged during this year’s sign-up season, the number of kids with marketplace coverage increased to 2.2 million — up by nearly 40% over last year’s period, according to a recent Georgetown University analysis.
- Some are likely among the nearly 3.4 million kids who have lost Medicaid coverage in the year since states were allowed to pare their rolls for the first time since the pandemic, per a KFF tracker.
- More generous premium subsidies and a 2023 policy that made it less expensive for families with pricey employer insurance to buy ACA coverage have also helped boost marketplace enrollment among kids, said Georgetown research professor Edwin Park.
Between the lines: There are some key differences between Medicaid and marketplace health coverage.
- For starters, the costs. Medicaid can’t charge premiums or impose cost-sharing on kids’ coverage, unlike ACA coverage.
- States have to provide periodic comprehensive screening services to all Medicaid enrollees under age 21, including health education and vision, dental and hearing exams.
- Marketplace plans also have to cover essential services, but coverage may not be as comprehensive.
- Kids with complex or chronic conditions in marketplace coverage may face more hurdles to get care paid for than kids in Medicaid because the scope of essential health services isn’t as well-defined, the Children’s Hospital Association told Axios.
Associated Press: A Biased Test Kept Thousands Of Black People From Getting A Kidney Transplant. It’s Finally Changing At issue is a once widely used test that overestimated how well Black people’s kidneys were functioning, making them look healthier than they really were — all because of an automated formula that calculated results for Black and non-Black patients differently. That race-based equation could delay diagnosis of organ failure and evaluation for a transplant, exacerbating other disparities that already make Black patients more at risk of needing a new kidney but less likely to get one.