What Would a Second Trump Presidency Look Like for Health Care?

By Julie Rovner
JANUARY 16, 2024

On the presidential campaign trail, former President Donald Trump is, once again, promising to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act — a nebulous goal that became one of his administration’s splashiest policy failures.

“We’re going to fight for much better health care than Obamacare. Obamacare is a catastrophe,” Trump said at a campaign stop in Iowa on Jan. 6.

Continued: https://kffhealthnews.org/news/article/donald-trump-health-record-second-presidency-abortion-drugs-covid/


The U.S. Supreme Court’s new, nightmare abortion cases, explained

The Court blocked a lower court order enforcing a federal law that protects patients who require medically necessary abortions.

By Ian Millhiser 
Jan 5, 2024

The Supreme Court handed down two significant orders on Friday evening. The first announces that the Court will hear a case asking whether former President Donald Trump is disqualified from running for president. The Court’s decision to hear this case was widely expected, and the biggest news in this order is that the Court plans to hear the case on an expedited basis, with oral arguments taking place on February 8.

The second order is more surprising and potentially almost as consequential: The Court temporarily blocked a lower court’s decision holding that patients who require an abortion to save their life or prevent catastrophic health consequences are entitled to such an abortion under federal law.

Continued: https://www.vox.com/scotus/2024/1/5/24027273/supreme-court-trump-abortion-emtala-idaho-emergency


Overturning Roe Has Been a Horror Show

Medical nightmares are happening before our eyes, and even as Americans in red and blue states express support for abortion rights, the GOP seems determined to crack down further.

BY MOLLY JONG-FAST
DECEMBER 18, 2023

The moment Ruth Bader Ginsburg died, I knew Roe’s days were numbered. Sometime in 2019, a conservative friend texted me that Donald Trump was saving Amy Coney Barrett for when RBG dies. Sure enough, Trump tapped Coney Barrett shortly after trailblazing justice’s death…

With nearly 50 years of precedent wiped away, and an existing constitutional right to an abortion eliminated, I worried about all the cruel and chaotic scenarios that could play out, such as doctors being afraid to treat miscarriages. One of the reasons Roe was decided so broadly in 1973 was because doctors found themselves hamstrung by existing legislation, more worried about losing their medical licenses than their patients.

Continued; https://www.vanityfair.com/news/roe-gop-abortion-restrictions


Behind the Scenes at the Dismantling of Roe v. Wade

By Jodi Kantor and Adam Liptak
Dec. 15, 2023

On Feb. 10 last year, Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. showed his eight colleagues how he intended to uproot the constitutional right to abortion.

At 11:16 a.m., his clerk circulated a 98-page draft opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. After a justice shares an opinion inside the court, other members scrutinize it. Those in the majority can request revisions, sometimes as the price of their votes, sweating sentences or even words.

Continued: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/15/us/supreme-court-dobbs-roe-abortion.html


The Next Republican President Has a Plan to Ban Abortion Nationwide Without Congress

BY MARY ZIEGLER
NOV 17, 2023

When voters directly consider the abortion issue, it’s bad news for Republicans, who have lost ballot measure after ballot measure upholding reproductive rights since Roe v. Wade was struck down last year. And to hear GOP primary candidates tell it, the next president won’t be willing or able to do much about abortion, a transparent effort to sidestep a losing issue. Donald Trump, the obvious front-runner, has occasionally indulged in magical thinking, suggesting that he can conjure up a national ban that Americans on either side of the issue will love. More realistically, though, he has attempted to neutralize the issue by doing things like calling a six-week ban on abortion “terrible,” while at the same time, in a wink and a nod to evangelical voters, running ads bragging about choosing the justices who overturned Roe. Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, another GOP hopeful, has stressed that a national ban is impossible: Congress will never pass one in the near future, and abortion opponents needlessly alienate swing voters by discussing one. The message from these candidates is clear: A Republican president won’t do much on abortion.

Continued: https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2023/11/biden-vs-trump-2024-nationwide-abortion-ban.html


American Elections Are About Abortion Now

Nov. 10, 2023
By Tom Bonier

With two election cycles after the decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization under our belts, it cannot be denied: Abortion rights are the dominant issue in American politics. And when supporters of abortion rights — a clear majority of Americans — see a connection between their votes and protecting what was once guaranteed by Roe v. Wade, they are more likely to vote.

With a second Trump term possibly hanging in the balance in next November’s election, these are lessons Democrats must seize.

Continued: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/10/opinion/abortion-presidential-election-biden.html


USA – Fifteen-Week Abortion Bans Are No Compromise The GOP is haggling over when to ban abortion. So are some Democrats.

By Irin Carmon
Oct 5, 2023

The mainline anti-abortion movement has a problem it thinks a 15-week abortion ban can solve. Accomplishing its cherished dream of overturning Roe v. Wade has come at a cost. Many Republicans are squirming away from the anti-abortion cause as politically toxic, to the point that presidential front-runner Donald Trump seems to think he can blow off the movement entirely. Meanwhile, right-wing activists are fretting that abortion is still too accessible, with patients circumventing state bans via interstate travel or abortion pills by mail. New Guttmacher data even suggest the absolute number of legal abortions went up in the first half of this year.

Continued: https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/abortion-bans-15-week-debate-republicans-democrats.html


Abortion rights center stage in Democrats’ 2024 US election campaign

By Nandita Bose
September 1, 2023

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Abortion rights helped Democrats stave off a hefty defeat at midterm elections last year and the party aims to put the issue at the center of the 2024 fight for the White House.

As Republican candidates propose new measures to restrict abortions and Republican-led states roll out tighter controls, President Joe Biden's re-election campaign last week released a new ad titled "These Guys", part of a $25 million campaign focused on women in key battleground states.

Continued: https://www.reuters.com/world/us/democrats-push-abortion-rights-heart-2024-campaign-2023-09-01/


USA – One year later, the Supreme Court’s abortion decision is both scorned and praised

By GEOFF MULVIHILL
Jun 25, 2023

Activists and politicians are marking the one-year anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that overturned a nationwide right to abortion with praise from some and protests from others.

Advocates on both sides marched at rallies Saturday in Washington and across the country to call attention to the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization ruling on June 24, 2022, which upended the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision.

Continued: https://apnews.com/article/abortion-dobbs-roe-anniversary-rally-ff6196c80112b7c9d5e6822b1807bf3e


US a country divided one year after Supreme Court abortion ruling

The historic US Supreme Court about-face on abortion a year ago has created a nightmare for women seeking the procedure, a legal morass for the courts and a challenge for the Republican Party.

Issued on: 19/06/2023

On June 24, 2022, a court reshaped by Republican president Donald Trump overturned the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that guaranteed a constitutional right to abortion and left it up to each state to decide.

That same day, several conservative states moved to ban abortion, forcing clinics to hastily shut down or move to places where they could still operate.

Continued: https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20230619-us-a-country-divided-one-year-after-supreme-court-abortion-ruling