Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Former FDA Chief Urges Agency To Loosen Restrictions On Drugs To End Early Pregnancy
Mifepristone is one of a regimen of two drugs approved by the Food and Drug Administration to end an early pregnancy. It's also prescribed to help reduce the severity of miscarriage symptoms. But it is heavily regulated in ways that can make it hard for women to obtain. Along with its approval in 2000, the FDA restricted its use because of safety concerns. In a perspective article published this summer in the New England Journal of Medicine, former FDA Commissioner Dr. Jane Henney and co-author Dr. Helene Gayle argue that the agency should reevaluate whether such measures are still necessary and take into consideration recent studies that show mifepristone is both effective and safe. (Torres, 8/20)
Planned Parenthood and a number of other health providers across the U.S. have formally withdrawn from Title X — the nation's family planning program for low-income people — after the Trump administration imposed new restrictions. Earlier this year, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services issued new rules prohibiting Title X funding recipients from providing or referring patients for abortion, except in certain cases. (Mosley, 8/20)
A Trump administration rule banning clinics that receive Title X grant money from discussing abortion options with patients is causing Oregon clinics to reject that source of funding. After a Trump administration rule that “prohibits the use of Title X funds to perform, promote, refer for, or support abortion as a method of family planning” was allowed to go into effect by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals pending litigation, Planned Parenthood and other family planning clinics that received government funds are removing themselves from the program. (Acker, 8/20)
Dr. Leana Wen, the former Baltimore health commissioner who was ousted last month as the Planned Parenthood CEO, has a new job as a professor at George Washington University’s Milken Institute School of Public Health. Mina Radman, a spokeswoman for the D.C. university’s school of public health, said Wen is rejoining the university as a visiting professor in health policy and management. She also said Baltimore’s former health commissioner will be a distinguished fellow at the Fitzhugh Mullan Institute for Health Workforce Equity. (Oxenden, 8/20)
