Abortion News and Research

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For Republican candidates, talk about moms and babies is a thorny issue

A month before Election Day, as Republicans in Congress dodged questions about a proposal to ban abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) tweeted that he wanted to talk about moms and babies.

4 Nov 2022

Hospital investigated for allegedly denying an emergency abortion after patient’s water broke

The federal government has launched its first confirmed investigation of an alleged denial of an abortion to a woman experiencing a medical emergency.

1 Nov 2022

Open enrollment for marketplace health plans is soon. Here’s what you need to know.

It's fall again, meaning shorter days, cooler temperatures, and open enrollment for Affordable Care Act marketplace insurance — sign-ups begin this week for coverage that starts Jan. 1, 2023.

31 Oct 2022

KHN’s ‘What the Health?’: Biden hits the road to sell Democrats’ record

What do pandemic preparedness, mental health care services, and over-the-counter hearing aids have in common? They are all things President Joe Biden touted on the campaign trail this week as he tries to maintain Democrats' majorities in Congress in the midterm elections Nov. 8.

20 Oct 2022

5 things to know about Montana’s ‘born alive’ ballot initiative

Montana voters will decide Nov. 8 whether to approve a ballot initiative declaring that an embryo or fetus is a legal person with a right to medical care if it survives an abortion or delivery.

20 Oct 2022

Pregnancy-associated homicides linked to lethal combination of intimate partner violence and firearms

Women in the US are more likely to be murdered during pregnancy or soon after childbirth than to die from the three leading obstetric causes of maternal death (high blood pressure disorders, hemorrhage, or sepsis), say experts in The BMJ today.

20 Oct 2022

KHN’s ‘What the Health?’: Finally fixing the ‘family glitch’

The Biden administration this week issued regulations aimed at fixing the Affordable Care Act's "family glitch," which has prevented families that can't afford their employer insurance from getting subsidized coverage from the insurance marketplaces.

13 Oct 2022

Abortion bans are motivating midterm voters, poll shows

Half of voters say the Supreme Court's decision overturning the constitutional right to an abortion has made them more motivated to vote in next month's midterm elections, with enthusiasm growing especially among Democrats and those living in states with abortion bans, according to a new poll from KFF.

12 Oct 2022

KHN’s ‘What the Health?’: Looking ahead to the lame-duck session

When the lame-duck Congress returns to Washington after Election Day, it will face a long list of health items needing attention before the end of the year, including setting overall spending for health programs and averting a series of Medicare payment cuts to health care providers.

6 Oct 2022

$80,000 and 5 ER visits: An ectopic pregnancy takes a toll despite NY’s liberal abortion law

When Sara Laub's period was late, the New York City resident shrugged it off. She'd used an intrauterine device, or IUD, for three years and knew her odds of getting pregnant were extremely slim. But after 10 days had passed, Laub, 28, took a home test in early July and got unwelcome news: She was pregnant.

5 Oct 2022

KHN’s ‘What the Health?’: On government spending, Congress decides not to decide

Congress is supposed to complete its annual appropriations bills before the start of the fiscal year on Oct. 1.

29 Sep 2022

Mycoplasma genitalium infection during pregnancy may cause preterm birth

A systematic review and meta-analysis on the impacts of Mycoplasma genitalium infection on adverse pregnancy outcomes has been published in the BMJ journal Sexually Transmitted Infections.

28 Sep 2022

KHN’s ‘What the Health?’: Biden declares the pandemic ‘over’

President Joe Biden's declaration in a national interview that the covid-19 pandemic is "over" has complicated his own administration's efforts to get Congress to provide more funding for treatments and vaccines, and to get the public to go get yet another booster.

22 Sep 2022

Texas, battling teen pregnancy, recasts sex education standards

J.R. Chester got pregnant the summer before her senior year of high school. A bright student with good grades, she gave birth, graduated, and was pregnant again when she arrived at college that fall.

20 Sep 2022

Doctors rush to use Supreme Court ruling to escape opioid charges

Dr. Nelson Onaro conceded last summer that he'd written illegal prescriptions, although he said he was thinking only of his patients. From a tiny, brick clinic in Oklahoma, he doled out hundreds of opioid pills and dozens of fentanyl patches with no legitimate medical purpose.

19 Sep 2022

New abortion laws jeopardize cancer treatment for pregnant patients

As abortion bans go into effect across a contiguous swath of the South, cancer physicians are wrestling with how new state laws will influence their discussions with pregnant patients about what treatment options they can offer.

16 Sep 2022

KHN’s ‘What the Health?’: Graham’s bill recenters abortion debate

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) put abortion back on Republicans' agenda this week with a legislative proposal calling for a national ban on most abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy.

15 Sep 2022

Impending hospital closure rattles Atlanta health care landscape and political races

Like many neighborhoods in cities across the country, Atlanta's Old Fourth Ward is changing.

14 Sep 2022

Meet Mary Wakefield, the nurse administrator tasked with revamping the CDC

It’s been a rough couple of years for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Facing a barrage of criticism for repeatedly mishandling its response to the covid-19 pandemic and more recently monkeypox, the agency has acknowledged it failed and needs to change.

6 Sep 2022

In the rush to curtail abortion, states adopt a jumbled stew of definitions for human life

As life-preserving medical technology advanced in the second half of the 20th century, doctors and families were faced with a thorny decision, one with weighty legal and moral implications: How should we define when life ends? Cardiopulmonary bypass machines could keep the blood pumping and ventilators could maintain breathing long after a patient's natural ability to perform those vital functions had ceased.

6 Sep 2022