Good morning, Broadsheet readers! NPR CEO Katherine Maher responds to accusations of bias, Boeing looks for its next CEO, and the Supreme Court’s latest abortion case examines how states value women’s health. Have a thoughtful Thursday.
– Death’s door. The latest abortion case in front of the U.S. Supreme Court debated one of the thorniest questions around abortion bans: how close to death must a person be to qualify for the life-saving exemptions to strict anti-abortion laws?
The Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA) requires that hospitals provide abortions to stabilize a patient when an abortion is the best treatment, even in states that have banned abortion except in cases of possible death.
Moyle v. United States is an Idaho lawsuit that asks the Supreme Court whether states are allowed to circumvent that law and prohibit abortion even if a person can’t be stabilized without one. (The state has transferred at least six patients facing medical emergencies out of state to terminate pregnancies.) Idaho is seeking to enforce its abortion ban, while the Biden administration is arguing that the EMTALA preempts the state’s law.
The Supreme Court heard oral arguments yesterday, and so far the justices seem divided on this issue. The court’s most conservative wing is expected to side with Idaho, while the liberal justices are likely to side with the Biden administration. Three of the six conservative justices seemed to land in the middle, still searching for legal arguments that would support Idaho’s stance.
The case brings to the fore one of the most difficult, practical realities of abortion bans. Even when state bans, like Idaho’s, include exceptions to save the life of the mother, providers can never be certain that conservative lawmakers and courts will agree with their judgment. When does a medical emergency qualify as life-threatening?
Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan pressed Idaho’s attorney on instances in which a woman’s health, but not necessarily her life, is at risk. Sotomayor raised a few examples, like a woman with pregnancy complications that are not yet life-threatening, but later lead to sepsis, or a person denied an abortion early in their pregnancy whose forced pregnancy leads to a hysterectomy. If a woman risks losing her organs, but not her life, is that enough to qualify for an abortion? (Idaho’s answer: no.)
The highest-profile abortion-related case at the Supreme Court this year has been its consideration of access to the abortion pill mifepristone. That case has brought up questions around science and medicine, roping in Big Pharma, which is concerned about the possibility of courts overruling drug developers. Moyle, meanwhile, centers on whether a state abortion ban violates federal law, but it also touches on an issue we’re forced to confront again and again: just how much value to place on women’s health.
Emma Hinchliffe
[email protected]
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- House call. In Arizona, meanwhile, the state House voted to repeal its recently-resurrected 160-year-old abortion ban. The issue now heads to the state Senate. Washington Post
- Take two. This morning, New York’s top court overturned Harvey Weinstein’s 2020 rape conviction, blaming a decision to let women testify about allegations beyond the case. The court ordered a new trial. AP
- Airing it out. Newly appointed NPR CEO Katherine Maher defended the nonprofit radio network as “really solid” in responding to a now-retired editor who criticized NPR for having a liberal bias earlier this month. Other critics have resurfaced some of Maher’s old tweets that show a history of progressive views, though Maher claims she has a “robust belief in the First Amendment” and sets her own politics aside as leader of NPR. Wall Street Journal
- Holding pattern. Boeing analysts and those close to the aircraft manufacturer say COO Stephanie Pope could either be a top candidate for the airline’s soon-to-be-vacant CEO spot or off of the list entirely given her three-decade career at the company. Some interpret her promotion to COO and head of the company’s struggling commercial plane business as a vote of confidence in her leadership, while others say she may stay in those positions while Boeing looks for an external candidate. New York Times
- Money for menopause. Midi Health, a startup designed to improve access to insurance-covered virtual menopause and perimenopause care, has raised $100 million in total funding after announcing a $60 million Series B round. Cofounder and CEO Joanna Strober said Midi will use the money to hire more clinicians and work towards a goal of 1 million annual members by 2029. Femtech Insider
- Care gap. Patients aged 65 and older in the U.S., especially women, experienced lower mortality and readmission rates when treated by women doctors instead of men, according to new research from the University of Tokyo. The researchers said the results may be due to male doctors’ tendency to downplay female patients’ illnesses or female physicians’ more comforting and communicative style. Forbes
MOVERS AND SHAKERS: Kroll appointed Karen Laureano-Rikardsen as chief marketing and communications officer.
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