Health Care – Republicans pass the “live birth” abortion bill in the House
Jennifer Coolidge spent three minutes on live TV last night explaining Worrying about mispronouncing someone’s name. Who wouldn’t do the same.
Today in health, the House passed the first abortion-related bill under a newly elected GOP majority and the White House once again extended the COVID-19 public health emergency.
For The Hill, we are Nathaniel Wicksell And Joseph Choi. Subscribe here.
House passes Republican abortion bill
The House of Representatives on Wednesday passed a bill requiring all babies born after attempted abortions to receive Medicare, the first abortion-related legislation from a House GOP majority after the Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade over the summer.
The measure, titled the Abortion Survivors Protection Act, passed by a vote of 220-210-1. One Democrat voted in favor of the measure and another voted “present.”
The bill, which House Republicans vowed to bring forward even before they have a majority, mandates that a child born alive after an attempted abortion receive the same degree of care as any other child born prematurely. The procedure also requires that the infant be taken to the hospital.
Medical groups have criticized similar forms of proposed legislation at the state level. Only about 1 percent of miscarriages occur after the fetus has managed to survive outside the uterus
The House’s passage of the bill comes days before the 50th anniversary of the Supreme Court ruling in Roe v. Wade, which made access to abortion a constitutional right. Judges overturned that decision in June.
The transition echoed off the bench across the country, with conservatives applauding the court and liberals sounding the alarm about the future of abortion access in the United States.
The White House is again extending the COVID-19 state of emergency
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) on Wednesday officially renewed the ongoing public health emergency for the COVID-19 pandemic amid concerns of a more transmissible viral mutation and widespread pandemic fatigue.
HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra’s announcement marks the twelfth renewal of the COVID-19 public health emergency, first announced by former HHS Secretary Alex Azar in January 2020.
“The COVID-19 public health emergency remains in effect, and as HHS previously committed to, we will provide 60 days notice to states prior to any possible termination or expiration,” an HHS spokesperson said in a statement to The Hill.
While this is not required by any laws or department rules, Becerra has publicly committed to giving state governments and healthcare stakeholders 60 days notice if he plans to allow the proclamation to expire.
The lack of notice in mid-November was understood as a tacit admission of this The state of public health emergency will be renewed.
“We’ve seen an increase in COVID cases in previous winters, and it doesn’t have to be that way this year. We now have an updated bivalent COVID-19 vaccine to protect from the Omicron strain. Our message is simple: Don’t wait. Get your COVID-19 vaccine.” Updated this winter.HHS spokesperson added.
Officials at the World Health Organization recommend wearing masks while traveling
Officials from the World Health Organization (WHO) are recommending re-emphasis on COVID-19 mitigation methods such as masking aircraft in regions such as North America and Europe in response to the spread of the XBB.1.5 omicron subvariant, which is believed to be much more. Transmissible from previous mutations.
Catherine Smallwood, the WHO’s chief emergency officer, was asked during a briefing on Tuesday whether travelers from the United States should undergo travel checks due to the spread of XBB.1.5.
“In terms of travel checks, yes, we’ve taken the view that checks should be implemented in a non-discriminatory way,” Smallwood said. “This does not mean that we recommend testing passenger patients arriving from the United States at this point.”
Passengers must choose to wear a mask in high-risk places such as long flights. And that should be a recommendation issued for passengers coming from wherever the spread of COVID-19 is,” noting that this qualification pretty much applies to the entire world right now.
XBB.1.5 is thought to cause 28 percent of cases in the United States today. Currently, more than 70 percent of cases in the northeastern United States are attributed to the variant.
Republican lawyer: Republicans ‘tone the tone’ on abortion
As House Republicans prepare to consider a number of bills that would limit access to abortion, GOP Representative Nancy Mays (SC) says her party is “deaf” on the issue, criticizing their approach.
“We’ve been deaf to this issue since Rowe flipped,” Mays told reporters on Tuesday. “We buried our heads in the sand… We didn’t have any political alternatives.”
While Republicans made abortion restrictions a top priority both before and after the end of Roe v. Wade, Mays criticized her party for “ranting lip service to the pro-life movement.”
“You will never pass the Senate. You will never go to the president’s office to sign a bill,” she said. “If you want to make a difference and reduce the number of abortions with a Democratic-controlled Senate, the number one issue we have to work on is access. to contraception.”
Mace voted for both House bills on Wednesday.
Republicans in their new majority have agreed to quickly consider two bills that would put restrictions on abortion — one codifying the Hyde Amendment that would ban the use of federal funding for the procedure and another aimed at regulating how health care providers treat babies. She was born alive after an attempted abortion.
Alabama AG warns against prosecution over abortion pill
Alabama’s attorney general said medical abortion remains illegal in the state despite the Biden administration’s recent moves to expand access to the drugs, and noted that a child chemical exposure law could be used to prosecute women who use abortion pills.
Alabama’s near-total abortion ban, which took effect immediately after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last summer, targets abortion providers and exempts people who undergo abortions from prosecution.
In a statement to The Hill, Attorney General spokesman Steve Marshall (R) said the women could instead face charges under the state’s Chemical Exposure Act, which was passed in 2006 to protect children from exposure to chemicals and fumes from home methamphetamine labs. .
Prosecutors have since expanded the law to apply to women who took any drugs during pregnancy or exposed their fetuses to drugs.
“The Human Life Protection Act targets abortion providers, absolving women ‘who have or attempt an abortion’ from liability under the law,” Marshall’s office said in a statement emailed to The Hill Wednesday.
“It does not provide a blanket exemption from all criminal laws, including the Chemical Endangerment Act — which the Alabama Supreme Court affirmed and reaffirmed protects unborn children.”
Alabama law states that a person commits a crime to chemically endanger a child if they “knowingly, recklessly, or knowingly cause or allow a child to be exposed to, ingest, inhale, or come into contact with a controlled chemical substance or drug paraphernalia.”
what we read
- FDA vaccine advisors are ‘disappointed’ and ‘outraged’ that early data on a new booster vaccine for Covid-19 was not submitted for review last year (CNN)
- Will public health reckoning come to America? (stat)
- Funding uncertainty affects the UN’s maternal health agency (Roll Call)
State by state
- As the new Senate is sworn in, Berger prioritizes expanding Medicaid, taxes, and education (Carolina Magazine)
- Massachusetts AG office highlights services for LGBTQ youth (Axios)
- Judge: Arizona prisons should provide better health care for prisoners (ABC15 Arizona)
Hill OP-ED
Environmental racism is exacerbating the consequences of the pandemic
That’s it for today, thanks for reading. Check out The Hill’s Health care page For the latest news and coverage. see you tomorrow.