Stockpiling of Abortion Pills in WA, Targeting of LGBTQ Healthcare Access in Red States & More

WA Stockpiling Abortion Drug as ‘Insurance Policy’ Against Potential Court Ruling

Washington Gov. Jay Inslee (D) said he ordered the state’s Department of Corrections to purchase 30,000 doses of the abortion pill mifepristone last month, and UW Medicine has bought 10,000 doses as well, giving the state about a four-year supply of the drug. The governor said the move was “an insurance policy” ahead of a federal court ruling in a Texas case that could limit the availability of abortion medication.

Lawmakers in the state have also introduced a bill (SB 5768) that would authorize the Department of Corrections “to acquire, sell, deliver, distribute, and dispense abortion medications.” (SEATTLE TIMES, STATE NET)

GOP-Led States Target LGBTQ Healthcare Access

State lawmakers have introduced 117 bills restricting healthcare access for LGBTQ individuals, according to a database compiled by the American Civil Liberties Union. The measures are part of a record number targeting LGBTQ rights this year, making such legislation “one of the defining characteristics of red-state governance across the nation,” as Pluribus News put it. (PLURIBUS NEWS)

States Seek to Limit Hospital Facility Fees

At least eight states have adopted or are considering imposing limits on hospital facility fees charged for telehealth visits or visits to medical clinics owned by hospitals rather than visits to hospitals themselves. Those states include Connecticut, where lawmakers enacted such limits last year (SB 2), and Colorado, where similar restrictions have been proposed this year (HB 1215). (PLURIBUS NEWS, STATE NET)

Bills to Ban Pelvic Exams on Unconscious Patients Advance in MO

The Missouri Senate unanimously passed a bill (SB 106) that would prohibit healthcare providers or medical students from performing anal, pelvic or prostate examinations on anesthetized or unconscious patients without the patients’ “specific informed consent.”

Such exams are legal in 29 states and considered beneficial for med students.

Missouri’s House unanimously passed a similar bill (HB 283). Each measure needs to be approved by the other chamber to advance to the desk of Gov. Mike Parson (R). Similar efforts to ban the practice in Missouri have failed the past three years. (MISSOURI INDEPENDENT, STATE NET)

Two OH Hospitals to Stop Delivering Babies

A pair of hospitals in Ohio—Valor Health in Emmett and Bonner General Health in Sandpoint—said they will stop providing maternity care. Officials at Valor said it had been “unsustainably expensive to recruit and retain a full team of high quality, broad-spectrum nurses to work in a rural setting,” while Bonner blamed its decision not only on staffing shortages but also on the state’s anti-abortion stance. (IDAHO CAPITAL SUN, KAISER HEALTH NEWS)

—Compiled by KOREY CLARK

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