With Ben Leonard
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ABORTION RIGHTS ON THE BALLOT – Key voters head to the polls in Kansas today, where they will, among other things, decide whether to amend the state constitution to clarify that it does not protect abortion rights, leaving the decision in the hands of state lawmakers.
The referendum marks the first time the issue of abortion rights has been put before voters since the Supreme Court’s decision in June to overturn precedents set by Roe v. Wade AND Planned Parenthood v. Casey.
Working block by block, hundreds of canvassers, some from across the country, are knocking on hundreds of thousands of doors to remind people of the stakes in today’s referendum — not just for Kansas, but for the country, POLITICO’s Alice Miranda Ollstein reports . on the ground.
Kansas is one of the only states in the region where abortion remains legal and has become a destination for patients from states, notably Texas, Missouri and Oklahoma, that have implemented near-total bans.
Follow the money: Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America is spending $1.3 million to air ads, mail, fly and house about 300 canvass volunteers.
In total, according to campaign finance disclosures, anti-abortion groups have raised nearly $4.7 million, most of it from the Catholic Church.
Kansans for Constitutional Freedom — the umbrella group fighting the amendment — has raised more than $6.5 million, with most of it coming from Planned Parenthood and other abortion rights groups.
A new survey from the Kaiser Family Foundation released today finds that a majority of American adults say they want lawmakers in their state to pass legislation guaranteeing access to abortion, even in states that have already banned the procedure:
Although 55 percent of registered voters surveyed said the issue of abortion rights would be “very important” to their midterm ballot this fall, it still trailed other priorities such as inflation, rising gas prices and violence with gun.
BIPARTISAN PROPOSAL ON ABORTION IN THE SENATE — A bipartisan group of senators released legislation Monday that aims to codify Roe v. Wade into law and ensure continued access to contraception, POLITICO’s Anthony Adragna and Marianne LeVine report.
The six-page legislation is sponsored by Sens. Tim Kaine (D-Va.), Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) and Susan Collins (R-Maine).
The measure would prohibit states from imposing “unnecessary” restrictions on the ability to access abortion services before fetal viability, while allowing some restrictions on abortions after fetal viability, as long as they do not affect the life or health of the fetus. to the mother.
While the legislation is bipartisan, its path forward is unclear.
DATA INTERMEDIARIES GET THE PRESSURE – Democratic lawmakers are piling pressure on data brokers to stop collecting information on pregnant women to protect those seeking abortions — but they’re not having much luck, POLITICO’s Alfred Ng reports.
For years, brokers have sold data sets on millions of expectant parents from their trimester status to their preferred birth methods. Now that the Supreme Court has been overthrown Roe v. Wade, the same data is becoming a political issue, with abortion rights groups warning that states with abortion bans are likely to weaponize it.
In the three months since POLITICO reported the draft opinion against deerSeveral congressional Democrats have sent letters to data brokers asking them to stop the practice, vowed to question companies about their collections, and introduced bills to limit the collection and sale of reproductive health data. .
But in the absence of legislation, many brokers are not taking notice.
POLITICO found more than 30 listings from data brokers providing information on expectant parents or selling access to those people through mass email blasts. Twenty-five of them updated their lists after deer decision on June 24.
The risk is not hypothetical. Police have used digital evidence like text messages and search histories in the past to enforce abortion laws. In 2015, Indiana prosecutors used a woman’s Internet search history as evidence to prove she had illegally induced her own abortion. She was convicted of feticide.
CMS PAYMENT RULE FOCUSES ON MATERNAL HEALTH — The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services on Monday released its final rule setting fiscal year 2023 payment rates for inpatient and long-term care hospitals, which includes new federal equity efforts and standards aimed at improving maternal health outcomes. .
Under the rule, CMS will create a new birth-friendly hospital designation for facilities that participate in national or statewide quality collaborations and implement all recommended interventions.
The effort builds on the Biden administration’s blueprint for addressing the maternal health crisis released last month, according to the agency.
In a statement, the American Hospital Association praised the rule’s increased payment rates, but argued that the increase did not go far enough to account for increased inflation and labor shortages.
FAMILY DOCUMENTS APPROVE PARTS OF THE MANCHIN-SCHUMER AGREEMENT — A letter to Congress from the American Academy of Family Physicians urges senators to support several provisions of the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, citing the bill’s expansion of the Affordable Care Act’s premium tax credits and price reforms of drugs.
FLORIDA ASKS STATE MEDICAL BOARD TO BAN CHILDREN’S TRANSITIONS – The Florida Department of Health has asked the state medical board to ban transition-related medical care for children and said the federal government and two medical organizations have created confusion over the issue, POLITICO’s Arek Sarkisian reports.
The Florida Department of Health wrote in a petition filed with the state Board of Medicine last week that the agency could find no evidence showing treatments such as surgery and hormone therapy were safe for children under 18 and accused HHS, the Academy American Pediatrics and Endocrine Society to mislead the public into believing the treatments are safe.
The eight-page petition, contained in a 1,100-page document, was the latest step taken by the DeSantis administration to block children from undergoing treatment.
What to expect next: The Florida Department of Health’s petition is on the agenda for a Florida Board of Medicine meeting Friday in Fort Lauderdale.
Sarah Arbes is joining AstraZeneca as head of federal affairs and policy. Most recently, she was VP of federal affairs, alliance development and policy at Bluebird bio. She is a fan of the Trump and Bush administrations.
Mackenzie Sumwalt now he is a strategic advisor for consulting companies in Blue Cross NC. She was most recently a strategy consultant at UNC Health.
Physician resident salaries have not increased since the start of the pandemic, reports Hailey Mensik of Healthcare Dive.
Biopharmaceutical company Amgen is battling the IRS over its international tax strategy and $10.7 billion in back taxes, The Wall Street Journal’s Joseph Walker and Richard Rubin report.
Over the past decade, the federal government allowed 20 million doses of a smallpox and monkeypox vaccine to expire, reports Joseph Goldstein of The New York Times.
