Tag: Roe v. Wade

Modest health goals for new US Congress

Volume 400, Issue 10369
17 December 2022 

 

WORLD REPORT  With Congress almost evenly split between Republicans and Democrats, consensus on any major health legislation is unlikely.  Susan Jaffe reports. 

When a new US Congress convenes in January, 2023, the slim Republican majority in the House of Representatives and the Democrats’ even smaller margin in the Senate will not enable either party to make major changes in the health-care system. With President Joe Biden promising to use his veto power to defend his health-care agenda, no significant fixes are expected. But there appears to be bipartisan support for some less ambitious legislation on issues that will overcome congressional gridlock.[Continued here.]…

Federal abortion rights end, but not legal challenges

Volume 400, Issue 10345
2 July 2022  

WORLD  REPORT  The US Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v Wade is due to spark further court cases. Susan Jaffe reports from Washington, DC. 
The Supreme Court’s momentous decision to abolish the half-century-old federal right to abortion not only rapidly reconfigures the political and legal landscape in the USA, threatening a host of other long-held personal freedoms. The seismic shift also ignites new legal battles within states that ban or severely restrict abortions, only 4 months before the mid-term elections that will establish which party controls Congress for the next 2 years.  Put simply, the ruling is “the legal equivalent of a nuclear bomb”, according to legal affairs correspondent for National Public Radio and veteran Supreme Court observer, Nina Totenberg. [Continued here.] 

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Califf takes the helm at the US FDA, again

Volume 399, Issue 10330
19 March 2022 

WORLD REPORT   Robert Califf will have to face several controversial health issues in his second tenure as commissioner. Susan Jaffe reports from Washington, DC.  

Califf takes over amid a lull in the COVID-19 pandemic and an array of hotly debated issues 9 months before a congressional election. The
election results could shrink, if not eliminate, the Democratic majority President Joe Biden needs to propel his health agenda, including the relaunched cancer moonshot and the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health that would accelerate the development of medical treatments. [Plus new COVID-19 tests and treatments, opioid misuse, accelerated approval process, abortion pill conflict, continued here.] 
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US Supreme Court expected to weaken abortion rights

Volume 398, Issue 10317
11 December 2021

 

WORLD REPORT   The US Supreme Court, now dominated by conservatives, heard arguments last week on the legality of a Mississippi law banning abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy. However, the justices signalled that they are likely to do more than uphold the law. .[Continued here.]

 

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US Supreme Court upholds abortion rights, for now

Volume 396, Number 10244

11 July 2020

 

WORLD REPORT The court’s decision means that Louisiana’s three abortion clinics will remain open. Susan Jaffe reports.

The US Supreme Court delivered the Trump administration’s third defeat in as many weeks when it overturned a Louisiana law requiring physicians who provide abortions to have local hospital-admitting privileges.

In an opinion written by Justice Stephen Breyer, the court declared on June 29 that “enforcing the admitting privileges requirement would drastically reduce the number and geographic distribution of abortion providers, making it impossible for many women to obtain a safe, legal abortion in the State and imposing substantial obstacles on those who could”.  [Continued here.]…

Legal battles over abortion heat up in the USA

Volume 393    Number 10184               11 May 2019               
WORLD REPORT   Changes to Title X, several legal challenges, and a change to the Supreme Court composition could mean drastic changes for access to abortion in the USA. Susan Jaffe reports.

“We are the department of life…from conception until natural death, through all of our programmes”, US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) secretary Alex Azar said earlier this year…. The government’s anti-abortion efforts have ignited lawsuits from Maine to California. Eventually, one or more of these cases are expected to reach the Supreme Court. With its newest arrival—Justice Brett Kavanaugh, whose nomination by Trump was championed by abortion opponents—the Supreme Court’s ideological balance has now shifted towards a conservative majority [raising] opponents’ hopes that a sympathetic court will diminish, if not overturn, Roe v. Wade...

Late last week, lawyers for the HHS appealed decisions by two federal court  judges in Oregon and Washington state to temporarily halt new administration rules that would limit the information about abortion services that federally funded health-care providers can tell their patients.    

“We are fighting back in the courts, we are fighting back in Congress and in state legislatures all across the country”, said Planned Parenthood president Leana Wen, noting that one in four women in the USA will have an abortion in their lifetime. “The public is with us when it comes to defending access to safe legal abortion, which people understand is part of the full spectrum of reproductive health care, which is health care.” [Continued here.]…