Modeled after a Texas law that was signed last summer, HB 388 requires abortion providers to obtain admitting privileges at a hospital within 30 miles of the clinic where they perform abortions, imposes a forced 24-hour waiting period on surgical abortions, and reduces the number of abortions a doctor must perform in a given year to be considered an abortion provider.
Rick Santorum recently made remarks suggesting that he’d prefer having everyone’s contraception covered by the government instead of by insurance plans. That might seem like a good idea on its surface, but in reality it would reduce access to contraception.
About 12,000 women in the United States get cervical cancer each year. While this number has not gone up, researchers have recalculated the rate of cervical cancer in the country and found that it’s higher than we thought, with some groups at much higher risk than previously believed.
A lawsuit filed by a New York woman against a local hospital alleges that she was forced to undergo a c-section
against her will. The suit is believed to be the first to raise a claim under a New York public health law detailing the rights of patients at hospitals in the state, but experts worry that such cases could become more common.
Currently, in Delaware, it’s effectively illegal for a trained, certified midwife to attend a home birth. A new bill introduced in the state legislature last week aims to change that, and is one example of how a growing movement of midwives is seeking to change inconsistent state laws that often criminalize their practice.
This week, New York state lawmakers took on a policy of using condoms as evidence of prostitution, a plan to sell condoms in middle and high schools in China met some skepticism, and the FDA approved a panel suggestion about HPV test. Plus, happy Masturbation Month!
Gov. Paul LePage vetoed a bill that would have expanded Medicaid coverage of family planning services for nearly 14,000 low-income women, and a vote to override the veto failed.
A panel of experts now recommends that a baby aspirin each day may be able to prevent up to a quarter of all cases of preeclampsia, a condition that develops in 4 percent of pregnancies and that can be life threatening for both the woman and the developing fetus.
Some 64 provisions have been introduced so far this year to expand or protect access to abortion, more than had been introduced in any year in the last quarter-century.
Until now, attempts to track the legislative journey that ultimately led to the passage of one of the most restrictive anti-choice laws in the country would have been a daunting task. With the launch of RH Reality Check’s interactive database, however, a picture of the long road to HB 2 begins to emerge.