Health Care — South Carolina abortion ban ruled unconstitutional 

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In health news, abortion rights advocates scored a major victory in South Carolina after the Supreme Court struck down the state’s six-week ban.  

Welcome to The Hill’s Health Care newsletter, where we’re following the latest moves on policy and news affecting your health. For The Hill, we’re Nathaniel Weixel and Joseph Choi. Someone forward you this newsletter? 

SC Supreme Court strikes down abortion ban 

The South Carolina Supreme Court on Thursday struck down the state’s ban on abortion after six weeks, ruling that the law violated constitutional rights to privacy that extend to the decision whether to terminate a pregnancy. 

The court ruled in a 3-2 decision to strike down the Fetal Heartbeat and Protection from Abortion Act. With the overturning of this law, abortions in South Carolina will be permitted up until 20 weeks of gestation. 

What was overturned: The bill was signed into law in February 2021, but did not go into effect until shortly after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the landmark Roe v. Wade decision last summer. 

Under the law, abortions were banned when a fetal heartbeat was detectable, which usually occurs around six weeks. South Carolina Supreme Court Justice Kaye Hearn noted that was before many people know they are pregnant. 

In her opinion, Hearn rejected the argument put forth by the South Carolina state government that the constitutional rights to privacy were limited by the absence of language mentioning bodily autonomy and medical care, an argument that states with similar laws have previously made. 

The ruling was a significant victory for abortion rights in the new post-Roe era, even if it may not translate to other states.  

“We hold that our state constitutional right to privacy extends to a woman’s decision to have an abortion,” Hearn concluded. “The decision to terminate a pregnancy rests upon the utmost personal and private considerations imaginable.” 

Speaker of the South Carolina House of Representatives, Rep. Murrell Smith (R), said the court had created “a constitutional right to an abortion where none exists.”

Read more here. 

CVS, Walgreens seek to dispense abortion pills

Two of the biggest pharmacy chains in the country are planning to seek the certification needed to dispense abortion pills in the states where it is legal, according to spokespeople for the companies. 

The decisions by Walgreens and CVS are likely to provide a boost to a new Food and Drug Administration (FDA) policy announced Tuesday that will allow retail pharmacies to dispense mifepristone from a certified prescriber if they meet certain criteria. 

“We are working through the registration, necessary training of our pharmacists, as well as evaluating our pharmacy network in terms of where we normally dispense products that have extra FDA requirements and will dispense these consistent with federal and state laws,” Fraser Engerman, a spokesman for Walgreens, said in an email. 

A spokeswoman for CVS said the company also plans to seek certification “where legally permissible.” 

Pharmacies in states with near-total abortion bans would not be eligible. Some states also mandate that the pills must be dispensed in-person by the physician who prescribed them. 

Until 2021, mifepristone could only be dispensed in person by a physician. The FDA temporarily lifted that requirement because of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the Biden administration made the change permanent in December 2021, paving the way for doctors to prescribe the drug digitally and then mail the pills to patients.

Read more here 

OFFICIALS LAUNCH PILOT PROGRAM FOR COVID TELEHEALTH CARE 

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) on Thursday announced the launch of a pilot program that will allow people to receive free testing, consultation and treatment for COVID-19 from their homes. 

The NIH estimated up to 8,000 eligible individuals will participate in the pilot program, called the Home Test to Treat program, which will be led by local and state officials in Berks County, Pa. 

“At-home testing for COVID-19 is now widely available in the United States, as are antiviral treatments, and this program combines easy home access to both,” said Bruce Stromberg, director of the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering at the NIH. 

“The Home Test to Treat program allows those who are sick an alternative to venturing out for testing or treatment, potentially reducing the spread of COVID-19 in the community,” he said. 

Other communities around the country will be selected to participate in this program based on need, socioeconomic factor and access to healthcare, according to the NIH. The agency said it is aiming to offer this service to up to 100,000 people in the U.S. over the next year. 

Read more here. 

POLLUTANTS IN SOME URBAN AREAS LINKED TO YOUTH ASTHMA ATTACKS: STUDY 

Common air pollutants ozone and fine particulate matter are associated with nonviral asthma attacks among U.S. youth living in dense, low-income urban areas, new research shows. 

In the current study, asthma attacks were triggered by a nonviral cause in nearly
30 percent of children, marking a total two to three times greater than the proportion of these attacks in nonurban children, authors wrote. The nonviral attacks were linked with higher levels of local outdoor ozone and fine particulate matter pollution. 

The study, funded by the National Institutes of Health, also found exposure to the pollutants was linked with molecular changes in children’s airways during the attacks, providing a possible explanation for the attacks’ underlying mechanisms.  

“The strong association this study demonstrates between specific air pollutants among children in impoverished urban communities and non-viral asthma attacks further augments the evidence that reducing air pollution would improve human health,” said Hugh Auchincloss, acting director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, in a release.  

Asthma’s severity and prevalence have increased alongside urbanization, researchers explained, while children living in urban settings tend to be at a greater risk for asthma compared with those in rural or suburban areas. 

Read more here. 

Trump abortion remarks spell political peril for GOP

Former President Trump’s criticism of hard-line abortion opponents is laying bare the tension over the issue within the GOP as the party looks to regroup after a bruising midterm election.  

On Monday, Trump accused Republicans, particularly those against abortion with no exceptions, of underperforming in the election.  

“It wasn’t my fault that the Republicans didn’t live up to expectations,” Trump wrote on his social media platform Truth Social. “I was 233-20! It was the ‘abortion issue,’ poorly handled by many Republicans, especially those that firmly insisted on No Exceptions, even in the case of Rape, Incest, or Life of the Mother, that lost large numbers of Voters.” 

Anti-abortion pushback: The attack drew a response from the anti-abortion group Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, which was amplified by Trump’s former Vice President Mike Pence, underscoring the divide within the party over how to message on the issue.  

Terry Schilling, the president of the conservative American Principles Project, lambasted Trump’s statement as “stupid” in an interview with The Hill.  

“Ultimately I thought it was so unlike Trump,” Schilling said. “First of all, it’s not true. The candidates that he endorsed that lost all went with this strategy of deflecting and the ostrich method.” 

Read more here. 

WHAT WE’RE READING

Amid low demand, global coronavirus vaccination set to slow in 2023 (Washington Post) 

Baby foods with toxic metals stay on US market while FDA dithers (Bloomberg Law) 

‘We are only beginning to know what it is’: Why doctors struggle to identify treatments for long COVID (USA Today) 

STATE BY STATE

‘Crisis mode’: As hospitals close, Mississippi lawmakers mull ‘band-aid’ fixes (Mississippi Free Press) 

Health care for transgender adults becomes new target in 2023 legislative session (The 19th News) 

Colorado to shut down all state-run COVID-19 testing sites due to low demand (Colorado Public Radio) 

THE HILL OP-ED

Biden’s expected nicotine rule brings failed 1920s Prohibition to 2023 

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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