Health Care — GOP senator blocks abortion travel protections

Today in health care, a GOP senator blocked a bill seeking to protect interstate travel for abortions as legislative fights heat up on the issue. 

Welcome to Overnight Health Care, where we’re following the latest moves on policy and news affecting your health. For The Hill, we’re Peter Sullivan, Nathaniel Weixel and Joseph Choi. Subscribe here.

Senator blocks protecting interstate abortion travel

GOP Sen. James Lankford (Okla.) on Thursday blocked a Democratic request to unanimously pass a bill seeking to protect interstate travel for abortion. 

• Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.), joined by a string of Democratic senators, had sought consent to pass a bill that would prevent states from punishing women who travel to other states where abortion is legal to get the procedure.
  
• The measure would also protect health care providers who provide abortions to out-of-state patients.  

“Does that child in the womb have the right to travel in their future?” Lankford said in objecting. “Do they get to live?” 

“There’s a child in this conversation as well,” he added. 

Big picture: With full-scale legislation to codify Roe v. Wade lacking the votes to pass the upper chamber, Democrats have looked for other legislative responses after the Supreme Court struck down the nearly 50-year decision that established a constitutional right to abortion. 

Unanimous consent requests can get GOP senators on record blocking measures.  

A series of Democratic senators had spoken in favor of the measure before the request Thursday. 

Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) said that “if people from other states need to come to Colorado to access the care they need, Congress has the obligation to shield them from prosecution.” 

Read more here.  

FDA delays crackdown on synthetic vaping

The Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday sidestepped a major crackdown on companies that make popular synthetic nicotine products. 

• Late Wednesday, the agency said it had issued warning letters to AZ Swagg Sauce LLC and Electric Smoke Vapor House, which listed a combined total of approximately 10,000 products with the FDA.
  
• Neither company submitted a premarket application for its non-tobacco nicotine products.  

Synthetic nicotine is made in a lab, and was a way for companies to skirt FDA regulation, since the agency previously did not have the ability to regulate it like it does with tobacco-derived nicotine. 

Synthetic nicotine products are often fruity flavored and popular with young people.   

• Under a new law, companies had until May 14 to submit a premarket application to keep their products on the market. Any company that didn’t would be considered illegal and would need to remove their products by July 13. 

Advocacy groups and senators said the agency needs to do more and slammed the lack of concrete action. 

Read more here. 

SAN FRANCISCO AT RISK OF AN ‘UNCONTROLLED MONKEYPOX SPREAD’ 

California Sen. Scott Wiener (D) said the city of San Francisco is veering toward a public health crisis due to the uncontrolled spread of the monkeypox virus in a statement Thursday. 

The city’s Department of Public Health tweeted Wednesday that its walk-in clinic will close for the remainder of the week due to the vaccine shortage. Other city clinics are working through remaining appointments and joining the DPH center in “urgently asking for more doses.”  

As of Wednesday afternoon, more than 1,700 San Francisco residents have been vaccinated against the virus, according to the San Francisco DPH. 

The warning: Wiener said the vaccination rate will continue to be slow, which will cause a spread in the city and surrounding communities. He said “failure to control this outbreak” will harm residents, especially the city’s LGBTQ+ community.  

“We need an enormous amount of additional vaccine doses, and we need it immediately. The federal government’s failures are threatening to deeply harm our community,” Wiener added. “Once we move past this emergency, we need accountability for these failures — failures that put people’s lives and health in jeopardy.” 

Read more here. 

AG: STATE WILL LOOK AT DR WHO PROVIDED ABORTION TO 10-YEAR-OLD 

Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita (R) says he will be looking into the licensure of the physician who provided abortion services to a 10-year-old rape victim from Ohio who made national headlines after she traveled out of state to receive the procedure. 

Caitlin Bernard, an Indiana obstetrician-gynecologist, publicly shared earlier this month in an interview published by the The Indianapolis Star that she would be assisting the young girl, who was prohibited from getting an abortion under Ohio’s six-week ban. 

The case has been the focus of intense scrutiny, as it comes just weeks after the Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade, eliminating the federal right to an abortion. 

Rokita appeared on Fox News Wednesday and referred to Bernard as an “abortion activist acting as a doctor.” He accused of her having a history of failing to report abortions and that an investigation into the physician and her license is underway. 

“We’re gathering the evidence as we speak, and we’re going to fight this to the end, including looking at her licensure if she failed to report. And in Indiana it’s a crime … to intentionally not report,” Rokita said. 

Read more here. 

Texas sues administration over hospital abortion guidance

Texas is suing the Biden administration over its recent guidance reminding hospitals and physicians that federal law requires them to provide abortions if there is a medical emergency and the health or life of the patient is at risk. 

The allegations: According to the suit, filed in the Northern District of Texas, the Biden administration “seeks to transform every emergency room in the country into a walk-in abortion clinic,” and is “flouting the Supreme Court’s ruling before the ink is dry.” 

The state is asking the court to issue a permanent injunction prohibiting the administration from enforcing the guidance.  

“I will ensure that President Biden will be forced to comply with the Supreme Court’s important decision concerning abortion and I will not allow him to undermine and distort existing laws to fit his administration’s unlawful agenda,” Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) said in a statement. 

• The lawsuit was filed just days after the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) issued guidance reaffirming that the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA) protects providers when offering legally mandated, life- or health-saving abortion services in emergency situations.  
  
• Under the EMTALA law, if an emergency medical condition is found to exist, the hospital must provide available stabilizing treatment or an appropriate transfer to another hospital that has the capabilities to provide stabilizing treatment. HHS said abortion care qualifies as stabilizing care. 

Read more here. 

WHAT WE’RE READING

• Low demand for young kids’ Covid vaccines is alarming doctors (Politico) 
• How the pandemic screwed up our antibiotics (Vox) 
• Demand for monkeypox vaccine rises with case counts, but supply remains low (CNN) 

STATE BY STATE

• Rural hospital rescue program is met with skepticism from administrators (The Texas Tribune) 
• State abortion bans prevent women from getting essential medication (Reuters) 
• Dems want $1 billion of Montana’s budget surplus spent on housing, childcare and mental health (Montana Free Press) 

THE HILL OP-EDS

• Two years later, why don’t we know more about long COVID? 
• Prevention is our best — and most underrated — weapon against opioids 

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.

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