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  • Abortion Debate Ramps Up in States as Congress Deadlocks

    Abortion Debate Ramps Up in States as Congress Deadlocks

    Julie Rovner, Kaiser Health Information

    Anti-abortion advocates are urgent for expanded abortion bans and tighter limits due to the fact the Supreme Court docket overturned the nationwide right to abortion. But with the discussion largely deadlocked in Washington, the focus is shifting to states convening their initial whole legislative periods due to the fact Roe v. Wade was overturned.

    Despite the fact that some state GOP lawmakers have filed bills to ban abortion drugs or make it a lot more complicated for women of all ages to journey out of condition for an abortion, some others feel split about what their subsequent measures ought to be. Some are even taking into consideration steps to simplicity their states’ present bans rather, notably immediately after Republicans’ fewer-than-stellar displaying in the 2022 midterm elections and voters’ widespread guidance for abortion on state ballot actions.

    Meanwhile, Democratic-led states are hunting to shore up abortion protections, which includes Minnesota and Michigan, the place Democrats sewed up legislative majorities in the November elections.

    Anti-abortion teams said their intention in overturning Roe v. Wade was to convert the selection back to the states, but now they are building apparent that what they want is an encompassing national abortion ban.

    “Legislation at the state and federal concentrations ought to present the most generous protections feasible to existence in the womb,” suggests the “Post-Roe Blueprint” of the anti-abortion group Learners for Lifetime.

    The new Republican-led Home confirmed its anti-abortion bona fides on its initial day of official legislating, Jan. 11, passing two pieces of anti-abortion legislation that are not likely to become legislation with a Senate still controlled by Democrats and President Joe Biden in the White Property.

    So at the federal amount, the fight is getting shape in the courts above the abortion pill mifepristone, which has been made use of as section of a two-drug routine for far more than two a long time, and a short while ago became the way a bulk of abortions in the U.S. are performed.

    The Biden administration has moved to make mifepristone much more broadly readily available by allowing for it to be dispersed by pharmacies, as well as clarifying that it is authorized to distribute the tablets by means of the U.S. mail. But the conservative authorized team Alliance Defending Liberty, on behalf of many anti-abortion groups, submitted a federal lawsuit in Texas in November, charging that the Food and drug administration never ever experienced the authority to approve the drug in the initially area.

    In Texas, some lawmakers are exploring new approaches to chip away at Texans’ remaining sliver of entry to abortions. For example, a single proposal would avoid area governments from utilizing tax bucks to aid people entry abortion products and services out of state, when a different would prohibit tax subsidies for firms that assist their neighborhood workforce obtain abortions out of condition.

    Individuals measures could get shed in the shuffle of the state’s frantic 140-day, each individual-other-calendar year session, if legislative leaders never consider them a priority. The state’s result in regulation banning just about all abortions that went into effect very last calendar year “appears to be performing really well,” explained Joe Pojman, founder and executive director of Texas Alliance for Everyday living, an anti-abortion team. In August 2022, 3 abortions were documented in the point out, down from a lot more 5,700 noted during the same thirty day period a calendar year before, in accordance to the most new point out details.

    The major point out Dwelling Republican claimed his precedence is boosting assistance for new moms, for case in point, by extending postpartum Medicaid protection to 12 months.

    It’s “an chance for the Texas Residence to emphasis extra than ever on supporting mothers and little ones,” stated Republican Household Speaker Dade Phelan.

    South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, a Republican, struck a comparable concept in a Jan. 10 speech, indicating she will introduce bills to develop a application for nurses to visit new mothers at property and support state workers fork out for adoptions. Formerly, Noem explained South Dakota needs to focus “on getting care of moms in crisis and finding them the means that they require for each them and their child to be profitable.”

    Some Texas GOP lawmakers indicated they may be open to carving out exceptions to the abortion ban in circumstances of rape and incest. And a Republican lawmaker plans to endeavor to modify South Dakota’s ban, which allows abortions only for existence-threatening pregnancies, to make clear when abortions are medically necessary.

    “Part of the situation proper now is that medical practitioners and suppliers just don’t know what that line is,” claimed condition Rep. Taylor Rehfeldt, a nurse who has experienced miscarriages and substantial-threat pregnancies herself.

    Rehfeldt wishes to reinstate a previous regulation that lets abortions for pregnancies that could lead to serious, irreversible bodily hurt to a “major bodily perform.” Rehfeldt reported she is also performing on charges to let abortions for men and women carrying non-viable fetuses, or who grew to become expecting right after rape or incest.

    Some anti-abortion activists in Ga are pushing lawmakers to go even further than the state’s ban on most abortions at about six months of pregnancy. They want a legislation to ban telehealth prescriptions of abortion supplements and a condition constitutional amendment declaring that an embryo or a fetus has all the authorized rights of a particular person at any phase of enhancement.

    “Roe is out of the way,” reported Zemmie Fleck, govt director of Ga Ideal to Existence. “There’s no much more roadblock to what we can do in our state.”

    Republican leaders, on the other hand, are biding their time whilst Georgia’s higher court docket weighs a legal problem of the six-7 days ban. “Our aim remains on the case in advance of the Georgia Supreme Court and observing it across the complete line,” mentioned Andrew Isenhour, spokesperson for Republican Gov. Brian Kemp.

    Abortion rights lawmakers and advocates have few alternatives to advance their initiatives in these Republican-managed statehouses.

    A Georgia Democrat filed a invoice that would make the point out compensate girls who are not able to terminate pregnancies due to the fact of the state’s abortion ban. Condition Rep. Dar’shun Kendrick acknowledged her bill likely won’t go much, but she reported she hopes it keeps notice on the situation and forces GOP lawmakers to “put their dollars in which their mouth is” in supporting households.

    In Missouri, in which nearly all abortions are now banned, abortion legal rights advocates are mulling the plan of circumventing the state’s Republican-dominated legislature by inquiring voters in 2024 to enshrine the proper to an abortion in the state’s constitution.

    But those people initiatives could be upended by a slew of expenses filed by Republican lawmakers in search of to make it additional challenging to place constitutional initiatives on the ballot, and for those actions that do make it on the ballot, by necessitating the acceptance of at the very least 60{fe463f59fb70c5c01486843be1d66c13e664ed3ae921464fa884afebcc0ffe6c} of voters for passage.

    Democrats in Michigan and Minnesota are very likely to use their newfound manage of both equally legislative chambers and the governors’ business to shield abortion obtain. Although Michigan voters now handed a ballot measure in November that enshrines the correct to abortions in the point out structure, Democrats are striving to repeal a 1931 abortion law from the books.

    In Illinois, Democrats in handle of the legislature not too long ago bolstered abortion protections amid elevated need from out-of-point out people. New York lawmakers this year might ship voters a proposed state constitutional modification to guard abortion, although New Jersey lawmakers decided from a equivalent proposal.

    The November elections introduced divided government to Arizona and Nevada, with Arizona now possessing a Democratic governor and Nevada obtaining a Republican just one. Any abortion-related costs that pass the legislatures in those states could be vetoed.

    Some Republican-controlled legislatures, which include those in Montana, Florida, and Alaska, also are limited in passing sweeping abortion bans due to the fact of court docket rulings that tie abortion obtain to proper-to-privateness provisions in these states’ constitutions.

    In Montana, a state decide blocked a few anti-abortion guidelines handed in 2021 on that foundation. Point out federal government attorneys have requested the Montana Supreme Court to reverse the precedent, and a selection is pending.

    In the meantime, Republican condition Sen. Keith Regier has submitted a bill there trying to get to exclude abortion from the state’s definition of a suitable to privateness. Regier mentioned he thinks an individual’s correct to privateness really should not use to abortion since an unborn boy or girl also is included.

    Democratic leaders mentioned Republicans are out of sync with the men and women they stand for on this difficulty. In November, Montana voters turned down a “born alive” ballot initiative that would have needed health professionals to use medical treatment to newborns who attract breath or have a heartbeat just after a failed abortion or any other beginning.

    “Montanans stated so clearly that they do not want governing administration overreach in their wellness care choices,” reported Democratic state Rep. Alice Buckley.

    KHN correspondents Renuka Rayasam and Sam Whitehead in Atlanta Arielle Zionts in Fast Town, South Dakota Bram Sable-Smith in St. Louis and Katheryn Houghton in Missoula, Montana, contributed to this report.

    KHN (Kaiser Well being News) is a national newsroom that creates in-depth journalism about overall health issues. Jointly with Plan Analysis and Polling, KHN is just one of the three significant running plans at KFF (Kaiser Household Foundation). KFF is an endowed nonprofit organization offering details on wellness challenges to the nation.

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  • South Carolina Senate Approves Medical Marijuana Bill On Initial Vote After Weeks Of Debate

    South Carolina Senate Approves Medical Marijuana Bill On Initial Vote After Weeks Of Debate

    South Carolina’s Senate gave preliminary approval to a medical marijuana legalization bill on Wednesday.

    If the legislation clears a forthcoming third reading vote for final passage, which is expected on Thursday, it will formally proceed to the House of Representatives.

    Senators, who spent weeks debating the legislation and considering dozens of proposed amendments, voted 28-15 on second reading passage Wednesday evening.

    Gov. Henry McMaster (R) said earlier this week that it was too early to comment on the proposal, as changes were still being made by lawmakers. “This is one that’s going to depend on a lot of things,” he told a local FOX station, adding that he’ll wait to see the final version before deciding whether he would potentially sign or veto the bill if if were to arrive on his desk.

    The Compassionate Care Act was prefiled in late 2020 and passed out of the Senate Medical Affairs Committee last March, but a lone senator blocked it from reaching the chamber floor in 2021. Since then, the bill’s sponsor, Sen. Tom Davis (R), has redoubled his efforts to get the bill across the finish line, arguing that South Carolina voters are ready what he’s repeatedly called “the most conservative medical cannabis bill in the country.”.

    Davis said last month that House Speaker Jay Lucas (R) has agreed to “allow the bill to go through the House process” if it advances through the Senate, but a spokesperson for Lucas later told the Charleston Post and Courier that “Sen. Davis doesn’t speak for Speaker Lucas.”

    The bill, S. 150, in its current form would allow patients with qualifying conditions to possess and purchase cannabis products from licensed dispensaries. Smokable products, as well as home cultivation of cannabis by patients or their caretakers, would be forbidden. Merely possessing the plant form of cannabis could be punished as a misdemeanor.

    While more qualifying conditions could be added in the future, the bill specifies cancer, multiple sclerosis, epilepsy and other neurological disorders, glaucoma, Crohn’s disease, sickle cell anemia, ulcerative colitis, cachexia or wasting syndrome, autism, nausea in homebound or end-of-life patients, muscle spasms and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) provided a patient can establish they experienced one or more traumatic events. Patients diagnosed with less than one year to live could also qualify.

    —
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    The bill would also allow access among patients with “any chronic or debilitating disease or medical condition for which an opioid is currently or could be prescribed by a physician based on generally accepted standards of care,” for example severe or persistent pain.

    Medical marijuana would be subject to the state’s 6 percent sales tax. Local governments were initially prohibited from adding further taxes of their own, but an amendment from Sen. Sandy Senn (R) removed that restriction.

    Senators spent most of Tuesday and Wednesday’s floor sessions discussing dozens of amendments to the legislation, taking action on some while tabling or carrying over others.

    Davis successfully urged rejection of some of the more hostile proposals, though he embraced other restrictions in the name of getting the bill passed. Under one amendment approved Tuesday with the sponsor’s support, for example, the medical marijuana law would sunset entirely at the end 2028. Lawmakers would have to take affirmative action for the program to continue into the next year.

    Among other new restrictions adopted in amendments, senators altered the bill’s language around medical marijuana and driving to clarify that DUI laws still apply and add a provision that patients who refuse to submit to a blood test if suspected of impaired driving would lose their license for six months. It would also be a misdemeanor for patients and caretakers to have an open container of cannabis in a vehicle unless it’s in the trunk, glove compartment or other sealed section.

    Further changes did away with dispensaries under the bill’s language and instead creating so-called cannabis pharmacies. The facilities would need to have a pharmacist on site at all times, and the South Carolina Board of Pharmacy would promulgate business regulations.

    That sweeping amendment, which Davis eventually backed, also revised the bill such that only physicians could recommend cannabis, rather than physician assistants and some nurses as allowed in previous versions of the legislation. A later amendment specified that retired law enforcement, former military or another qualified agency provide security to cannabis pharmacies.

    Other new restrictions say that doctors who recommend cannabis would need to independently verify the qualifying diagnosis with the patient’s treating physician, and that cannabis cultivation centers could not be multi-level facilities. People with felony-level drug convictions would also be prevented from participating in the new industry for a period of 10 years.

    Another change, dubbed the South Carolina First amendment, would give in-state businesses extra points in the state’s cannabis licensing process in an effort to prioritize them over larger, multi-state businesses that supporters said might otherwise dominate the market. Yet another amendment would clarify that state-licensed cannabis businesses could obtain cannabis only from other in-state businesses.

    Lawmakers held a lengthy debate on an amendment that would have replaced the main patient access provisions of the bill with a limited program of clinical trials on medical cannabis’s effects, but it was tabled. A revised version of the amendment was reintroduced later to create a complementary system of clinical trials that would exist alongside the general program, a change senators approved.

    Other adopted changes adjusted the makeup of the program advisory board, removed qualified immunity for doctors who recommend cannabis, restricted certain shapes of edibles in an effort to reduce their appeal to children, required cannabis businesses require liability coverage of at least $1 million and mandate that the state annually publish details on qualified patients by age group and type of debilitating condition. Another prohibits members of the General Assembly who vote on the cannabis bill, as well as their direct family members, from owning or benefiting financially from a medical marijuana business.

    Amendments to the bill made last year in committee, meanwhile, were formally adopted on the Senate floor late last month. Those made a number of small changes to the proposal, for example allowing visiting patients with medical marijuana cards from other states to access South Carolina dispensaries. Another clarified that legalization would not require health plans to cover cannabis.

    Revenue allocation would also change slightly as the result of recent amendments. Under the amended bill, 75 percent of tax revenue after expenditures would go to the state’s general fund, with another 10 percent going to drug use disorder treatment service providers, 5 percent going to state law enforcement, and the remainder going to cannabis research and drug education.

    For the initial rollout, regulators would approve 15 cannabis cultivators, 30 processing facilities, a cannabis pharmacy for every 20 pharmacies in the state, five testing laboratories and four cannabis transporters. The bill initially allowed state regulators to add other license types, but an amendment adopted Wednesday made it so only elected lawmakers could do that.

    The bill initially allowed state regulators to add other license types, but an amendment adopted Wednesday made it so only elected lawmakers could do that.

    Local governments could ban medical cannabis businesses from operating in their jurisdictions under the amended bill, but otherwise the it says that local land use and zoning burdens “should be no greater for a cannabis-based business than for any other similar business.”

    The state Department of Health and Environmental Control would oversee licensing and other regulations of the new industry. A newly established Medical Cannabis Advisory Board would be in charge of adding or removing qualifying conditions. Under amendments adopted this week, it would meet at least once per year and be led by a governor-appointed chairperson.

    Davis has championed medical marijuana in South Carolina since 2014 and at a rally last week brought out a binder that he said contained eight years of research into the issue. He said he would use the information to “take on every single argument that has been raised in opposition to this bill, and I’m going to show that they cannot stand in the way of facts and evidence.”

    He’s also continued to push back against opposition to cannabis legalization from his own party, for example calling out an attack ad that was paid for by the state GOP.

    The state Republican organization separately slammed a federal legalization bill from U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace, a Republican who represents South Carolina in Congress. And last month cannabis opponents sent a mailer accusing Davis of wanting to turn the state into “one big pot party.”

    A former White House chief of staff under President Donald Trump also recently calling out his home state South Carolina Republican Party for opposing the medical marijuana bill medical marijuana. Mick Mulvaney, Trump’s top aide for more than a year and a former congressman, called the legislation “something that merits discussion and reasoned analysis,” even if it’s not a proposal that is conventionally considered a conservative priority.

    Davis referred to the maneuvers by his own party as “the elephant in the room” on the Senate floor as debate on the floor kicked off last week, saying he was offended by the misinformation and planned to rebut every misleading claim the group made.

    “I’m going to go through every single legal argument that’s been put up there—lack of medical evidence, unintended social consequences—and take them all up and discuss them and refute them,” the senator said.

    A poll released last February found that South Carolina voters support legalizing medical marijuana by a five-to-one ratio. But the state does not have a citizen-led initiative process that has empowered voters in other states to get the policy change enacted.

    Support for medical marijuana legalization among South Carolina residents has been notably stable, as a 2018 Benchmark Research poll similarly found 72 percent support for the reform, including nearly two-thirds (63 percent) of Republicans. Davis said last year that if the legislature didn’t advance the reform, he’d propose a bill to put the question of medical marijuana legalization to voters through a referendum.

    Also in 2018, 82 percent of voters in the state’s Democratic primary election voted in favor of medical cannabis legalization in a nonbinding ballot advisory vote.

    Lawmakers prefiled four marijuana measures for the 2019 session, but they did not advance.

    As debate on the bill kicked off in the Senate this session, Davis said that after years of effort, even seeing his bill advance to the chamber floor was a victory.

    “If you pound at the door long enough, if you make your case, if the public is asking for something, the state Senate owes a debate,” he told the Charleston Post and Courier. “The people of South Carolina deserve to know where their elected officials stand on this issue.”

    Congress Briefed On Federal Courts’ Diverging Opinions On Medical Marijuana Protection Rider

    Photo courtesy of Mike Latimer.

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