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Supreme Court’s Blow to Federal Agencies’ Power Will Likely Weaken Abortion Rights

Nevada Current, July 17, 2024

The Supreme Court wrapped up its term at the beginning of July 2024 with a range of rulings that reshape everything from the power of the presidency to how federal agencies carry out their work. One of the court’s most significant decisions was Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo. This ruling, at its core, determines the balance of power between the judiciary branch’s federal courts and the executive branch’s federal agencies. When Congress passes laws, legislators know that many will have gaps and ambiguities. It is generally the job of federal agencies – staffed with subject-matter experts – to issue regulations to fill in that detail. Before the Supreme Court’s July ruling, courts deferred to those agency decisions. Now, in a reversal of 40 years of precedent, courts, not agencies, will have the last word on interpreting federal law. Loper did not automatically reverse all agency determinations made over the past 40 years. But, going forward, Loper’s shift of power from federal agencies to the federal courts will have profound effects on many different policies and laws – including those that deal with abortion and reproductive rights. Lawyers and scholars like me who study reproductive rights understand that federal agencies, such as the Department of Health and Human Services and the Food and Drug Administration, generally have the scientific and medical expertise necessary to set guidance for and implement effective, evidence-based reproductive health care policy. For example, the FDA first approved mifepristone, one of the two drugs that can cause nonsurgical medical abortions, in 2000. The agency’s medical and scientific experts reviewed decades of evidence from clinical trials and highly technical scientific studies and found that the drug was safe and effective.

The 19th Explains: What You Need To Know About Project 2025

The 19th, July 16, 2024

Project 2025 is a 920-page policy blueprint created by the conservative Heritage Foundation that lays out a far-right Christian vision for Trump’s second White House term if he wins in November. It’s the latest “Mandate for Leadership” that the group has been releasing ahead of incoming presidential administrations since the early 1980s. The blueprint encourages the next presidential administration to disband the Gender Policy Council created by Democratic President Joe Biden and undo all of its work. Heritage suggests eliminating diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs across the federal government. The authors also want to take the following terms out of every rule and regulation: sexual orientation and gender identity (“SOGI”), DEI, gender, gender identity, gender equity, gender awareness, gender-sensitive, abortion, reproductive health and reproductive rights. In Project 2025, a fundamental premise is that abortion is not health care – and the CDC would be banned from promoting it as such. The document’s authors want the renamed Department of Life to collect data on people who have abortions, using “every available tool, including the cutting of funds, to ensure that every state reports exactly how many abortions take place within its borders, at what gestational age of the child, for what reason, the mother’s state of residence, and by what method.” They urge the agency to rescind Biden administration guidance that EMTALA, a decades-old emergency medicine law, requires that hospitals provide abortion care in emergency situations. They also call to eliminate the agency’s Reproductive Healthcare Access Task Force and replace it with an anti-abortion task force. Project 2025 says the Food and Drug Administration should reverse its 2000 approval of the medication abortion drug mifepristone. They also encourage the Department of Justice to announce a campaign to enforce the long dormant 1873 Comstock Act, which prohibits the mailing of obscene materials and articles intended for “producing abortion.” This is another route to restrict access to abortion medication – a top priority of the anti-abortion movement given it can be mailed across state lines.

In States With Strict Abortion Policies, Simply Seeing an OB/GYN for Regular Care Can be Difficult

NBC News, July 18, 2024

The chances that a woman can see a doctor while pregnant – or during a time when she might become pregnant – have fallen significantly since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, according to a new report released Thursday. The findings, from The Commonwealth Fund, a nonpartisan health care research foundation, show that women living in states with a history of health disparities – often in the Southeast – are affected the most. They are not only less likely to be able to afford a doctor’s appointment; they’re less likely to be able to find an OB/GYN in their area.“These inequities are long-standing, no doubt,” Dr. Joseph Betancourt, president of The Commonwealth Fund, said during a media briefing Wednesday to discuss the report. “But recent policy choices and judicial decisions restricting access to reproductive care have and may continue to exacerbate them.” The report looked at more than a dozen measures of women’s health care, including maternal mortality, preterm birth and postpartum depression, in all 50 states in 2022, the year of the Dobbs ruling. That single action “significantly altered both access to reproductive health care services and how providers are able to treat pregnancy complications in the 21 states that ban or restrict abortion access,” the authors wrote. States with the most restrictive abortion policies, including Mississippi, Oklahoma, Texas and West Virginia, scored lowest in the new report. States that protected abortion care, including Connecticut, Massachusetts and New Jersey, ranked highest. Women in states that had not expanded Medicaid coverage were most affected. “Women’s health is in a very fragile place,” said lead author Sara Collins, vice president for health care coverage and access and tracking health system performance at The Commonwealth Fund. “Our health system is failing women of reproductive age, especially women of color and low-income women.” Reasons for the disparity are twofold, Collins said. Women living in the lowest-ranking states are less likely to have health insurance to afford doctor’s visits. And even if they can, there aren’t enough OB/GYNs to take care of them.

JD Vance, Trump’s VP Pick, Has Opposed Abortion and LGBTQ+ Rights

The 19th, July 15, 2024

Former President Donald Trump has selected as his running mate first-term Republican Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, who has opposed abortion rights and some LGBTQ+ rights in his time in political office. Vance was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2022. By then, he had transformed from a Trump critic in the 2016 election to a strong Trump supporter, fully embracing Trump’s brand of populist politics and positioning himself as the vanguard of an ultraconservative intellectual movement. He has stood against abortion rights and some LGBTQ+ rights measures while supporting policies he argues would increase birth rates in the United States, such as making childbirth free and financially incentivizing couples to have children. Vance, who ran as staunchly anti-abortion in his Senate campaign and in 2021 compared abortion to slavery, has somewhat shifted his public stance on the issue. Trump has reportedly viewed a hardline stance on abortion as a negative for a running mate. On the campaign trail in 2021, Vance defended the lack of exceptions for rape and incest in a Texas abortion ban known as S.B. 8, saying in an interview that “two wrongs don’t make a right.” “It’s not whether a woman should be forced to bring a child to term, it’s whether a child should be allowed to live, even though the circumstances of that child’s birth are somehow inconvenient or a problem to the society,” he said In a 2022 Senate debate, however, Vance said he supported “reasonable exceptions” to abortion bans. He was still broadly against access, however, saying he would be “totally fine” with a “minimum national standard” on abortion laws. He also campaigned against a constitutional amendment in Ohio that guarantees a right to abortion and other forms of reproductive health care in the state. In a post on X, Vance described the amendment’s passage in November 2023 as a “gut punch” and said conservatives needed to regain trust on the issue of abortion – including by supporting exceptions.

Louisiana OB-GYN Receives Limited Reproductive Training After Abortion Bans

Healthline, July 15, 2024

In states with strict abortion laws, many medical residents are unable to receive abortion training. Some medical students have left states such as these to obtain full-scope OB-GYN training, which includes abortion care and counseling. One healthcare professional in Louisiana faced this dilemma midway through her medical residency. After completing her residency, she left the state to pursue an OB-GYN practice in the Northeast, where abortions are permitted. As states pass sweeping restrictions against abortion, it’s become increasingly clear these bans have far-reaching consequences. Evidence has shown, for example, that abortion restrictions can push families into poverty, worsen pregnant people’s long-term physical and mental health, and cause increases in both maternal and infant deaths. Less known, however, is the impact abortion bans have on the healthcare professionals who care for pregnant individuals. A new report from the University of California San Francisco revealed that the fall of Roe v. Wade, which led to an influx of abortion restrictions in multiple states, has been particularly distressing for obstetrics and gynecology (OB-GYN) residents. Healthline spoke with one healthcare professional who can attest to this. Due to privacy concerns, this source’s name has been changed to Emily Green for the purpose of reporting and protecting her identity. Green moved to Louisiana in 2020 for her OB-GYN residency at an academic hospital. When considering hospitals to apply to, reproductive justice was at the forefront of her decision – she chose a program that would provide her with the training to be a full-scope OB-GYN. “To me, that includes good training and solid foundation in contraception counseling, in abortion counseling, and in abortion training,” Green told Healthline. But in June 2022, Roe v. Wade was overturned, and Green, who was halfway through her residency, suddenly found herself smack in the middle of the country’s anti-abortion movement. Green’s experiences, as detailed below, are her own opinions and not those of the larger institutions she’s been a part of.

ICYMI: In Case You Missed It

.@shainaleah, our director for reproductive health & rights, spoke to @ByNinaMartin about the far-reaching consequences of the recent Loper Bright and Relentless SCOTUS decision on reproductive and gender issues.

Read more👇 https://t.co/9EEWrBeW1a

— National Partnership (@NPWF) July 12, 2024

 

 

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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.