Biden Administration Proposes a Rule To Make Over-the-Counter Birth Control Free
NPR, October 21, 2024
The Biden administration is proposing a rule that would expand access to contraceptive products, including making over-the-counter birth control and condoms free for the first time for women of reproductive age who have private health insurance. Under the proposal by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Labor Department, and Treasury Department, which was announced by the administration on Monday, health insurance companies would be required to cover all recommended over-the-counter contraception products, such as condoms, spermicide and emergency contraception, without a prescription and at no cost, according to senior administration officials. It would also require private health insurance providers to notify recipients about the covered over-the-counter products. The products would be able to be accessed the same way prescription medicines are accessed, such as at the pharmacy counter, according to senior administration officials. Getting the products through reimbursement would also be an option, depending on the health insurance plan, officials said.
Tennessee Judges Say Doctors Can’t Be Disciplined for Providing Emergency Abortions
Associated Press, October 17, 2024
A three-judge panel on Thursday ruled that Tennessee doctors who provide emergency abortions to protect the life of the mother cannot have their medical licenses revoked or face other disciplinary actions while a lawsuit challenging the state’s sweeping abortion ban continues. The ruling also outlined specific pregnancy-related conditions that would now qualify as “medical necessity exceptions” under the ban, which currently does not include exceptions for fetal anomalies or for victims of rape or incest. The judges determined that the following medical conditions now fall under the state’s abortion exemptions: premature rupture of the amniotic sac that surrounds the fetus; inevitable abortions; fatal fetal diagnoses that result in severe preeclampsia or mirror syndrome associated with fetal hydrops; and fatal fetal diagnoses leading to an infection that will result in uterine rupture or potential loss of fertility.
Infant Mortality in the U.S. Worsened After Supreme Court Limited Abortion Access
Los Angeles Times, October 21, 2024
Infant deaths have increased in the United States since the Supreme Court ruling that overturned Roe vs. Wade and allowed states to make abortion illegal, researchers reported Monday. The change became detectable three months after the June 2022 ruling with an elevated rate of infant mortality involving babies born with serious congenital anomalies, the researchers found. By the end of 2023, there were six months when the death rate for infants with severe anatomical problems was significantly higher than in the years leading up to the high court’s decision. The researchers also identified three months when the nation’s overall infant mortality rate had increased. However, neither of those rates fell below their historical range in the year and a half after the ruling in Dobbs vs. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. The findings, reported Monday in the journal JAMA Pediatrics, were seen as a clear sign that the Dobbs decision has prevented some women from terminating pregnancies that otherwise would have ended in abortion. “Prior to these abortion bans, people had the option to terminate if the fetus was found to have a severe congenital anomaly — we’re talking about organs being outside of the body and other things that are very severe and not compatible with life,” Gemmill said. However, if women in these situations had no choice but to continue their pregnancies, “those babies would die shortly after birth,” she said.
Women in States With Bans Are Getting Abortions at Similar Rates as Under Roe, Report Says
ABC News, October 22, 2024
Women living in states with abortion bans obtained the procedure in the second half of 2023 at about the same rate as before the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, according to a report released Tuesday. Women did so by traveling out of state or by having prescription abortion pills mailed to them, according to the #WeCount report from the Society of Family Planning, which advocates for abortion access. They increasingly used telehealth, the report found, as medical providers in states with laws intended to protection them from prosecution in other states used online appointments to prescribe abortion pills. “The abortion bans are not eliminating the need for abortion,” said Ushma Upadhyay, a University of California, San Francisco public health social scientist and a co-chair of the #WeCount survey. “People are jumping over these hurdles because they have to.” The #WeCount report began surveying abortion providers across the country monthly just before Roe was overturned, creating a snapshot of abortion trends. In some states, a portion of the data is estimated. The effort makes data public with less than a six-month lag, giving a picture of trends far faster than the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, whose most recent annual report covers abortion in 2021.The report has chronicled quick shifts since the Supreme Court’s Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization ruling that ended the national right to abortion and opened the door to enforcement of state bans.
Judge Tells Florida’s Top Doctor Not To Threaten TV Stations Over Abortion-Rights Ads
ABC News, October 18, 2024
A judge has blocked the head of Florida’s state health department from taking any more action to threaten TV stations over an abortion-rights commercial they’ve been airing. U.S. District Judge Mark Walker’s ruling Thursday sided with Floridians Protecting Freedom, the group that produced the commercial promoting a ballot measure that would add abortion rights to the state constitution if it passes in the Nov. 5 election. The group filed a lawsuit earlier this week over the state’s communications with stations. “The government cannot excuse its indirect censorship of political speech simply by declaring the disfavored speech is false,” the judge said in a written opinion. State Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo and John Wilson, who was then the top lawyer at the health department before resigning unexpectedly, sent a letter to TV stations on Oct. 3 telling them to stop running an FPF ad, asserting that it was false and dangerous. The letter also says it could be subject to criminal proceedings. FPF said about 50 stations were running the ad and that most or all of them received the letter — and at least one stopped running the commercial. The judge’s order bars further action from the state until Oct. 29, when he’s planning a hearing on the question.
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Note: The information contained in this publication reflects media coverage of women’s health issues and does not necessarily reflect the views of the National Partnership for Women & Families.
