Health News This Week: Omicron Makes Gains Around the World as U.S. Supreme Court Justices Hear Mississippi Abortion Case

Alexis McGill Johnson

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Marianne O’Hare : Welcome to Conversations on Health Care with Mark Masselli and
Margaret Flinter, a show where we speak to the top thought leaders
in health innovation, health policy, care delivery, and the great
minds who are shaping the hea lthcar e of the future.

This week on the heels of the Supreme Court hearing on the
Mississippi Law banning all abortions after 15 weeks, Mark and
Margaret revisit their recent conversation with Alexis McGill
Johnson, President of Planned Parenthood, who notes th at Roe v
Wade is in serious jeopardy of being overturned by the conservative
High Court and that systematic efforts across many conservative
states as well as the previous administration have hampered
women's access to safe and legal ab ortion and reproduct ive health.

Lori Robertson also checks in, the Managing Editor of F act C heck.org
and looks at misstatements spoken about health policy in the public
domain, separating the fake from the facts . We end with a bright
idea that's improving health and well bein g in everyday lives.

If you have comments, please e - mail us at [email protected] or
find us on Facebook , Twitter , or wherever you listen to podcast s . You
can ask Alexa to play the program . Now stay tuned for our i nterview
with Alexis McGill Johnson, President of Planned Parenthood, here
on Conversations on Health Care.

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Mark Masselli: We're speaking today with Alexis McGill Johnson, President and CEO
of Planned P arenthood Federation of America, now in its ce ntennial
year and Planned Parenthood Action Fund .

Margaret Flinter: A seasoned activist and organizer , she serves on the board of Color
of Change and the Leadership Council for Civil and Human Rights .
Alexis, welcome to Conversations on Health Care .

Alexis McGill Johnson: Oh, thank you so much for having me. It's a delight to be here.

Mark Masselli: Well, Alexis, we're approaching the 50th anniversary of Roe v. Wade,
the Supreme Court decision which legalized abortion. But never
since that time have America n reproductive rights seems so in peril
and we can simply start with the most recent Texas law SB 8 banning
all of abortions after six weeks . The law allows average citizens to
sue anyone connected to such abortions. And late last week, the
Supreme Court st ated its intent to uphold certain aspects of SB 8. Can
you bring our listeners up to speed on the intent of the law and the
latest developments around it?

Alexis McGill Johnson: Well, last week, the Supreme Court granted both our and the Biden

Alexis McGill Johnson

administratio n's request to hear the challenges to SB 8 on November
st
1 , and that is significant. We were looking forward to our patients
and providers finally having their day in court. But they have allowed
this law, as you have named not just unusual, but particularl y cruel
to remain in effect, despite the devastating harm that we have
already seen. SB 8 is a six week blatantly unconstitutional ban against
abortion. Normally, when you have an unconstitutio nal law, you are
able to appeal, sue the State .

Instead, what T exas has done is created a provision where the state
actually cannot enforce the law that they created, and instead
empowers average citizens, even outside of Texas to enforce the law
with what's been called a bounty hunting provision, that if they find
ou t that someone has had an abortion after six weeks in Texas,
anyone who has helped them secure that access to abortion can be
charged with a $10,000 fine. So it is incentivized in the most perverse
way behavior that pits citizens against citize ns, neighbor s against
neighbors, and has in effect stopped the provision of abortion care
after six weeks sending thousands of people seeking access to care
outside of Texas into neighboring states all the way up to where I am
in the Northeast. So it's abominable.

Mar garet Flinter: Well, Alexis, while these legal questions play out around SB 8 , Texas
is not alone , right, according to the Guttmacher Institute, more than
hundred laws restricting abortions have passed in states all ar ound
the country this past year. Help u s understand the full impact these
laws are having on impeding access to reproductive health services.
And we understand also maybe there's a diminishing in the number
of the clinicians prepared to provide such services that have resulted
from this as well .

Alexis McGill Johnson: I mean, look, we know that what's happening in Texas is not going to
stay in Texas, as many as 12 states are already threatening to pass
copycat bills thus f ar. We know a bill has been pre - filed in Florida.
Politicians in Arkansas are also threatening the same. You know,
we've had Governor Hutchinson of Arkansas sending a clear note to
the Supreme Court that they wanted the court to consider
overturning Roe in this process. So abortion is consistently under
attack. As you mentioned a hundred restrictions in 2021 alone, the
most restrictions on record since Roe was decided in 1973. These
onerous barr iers, what are called trap laws, targeted regulation
specifically of abortion providers have made it increasingly difficult
for providers to provide care. And we also know that these laws have
very little to do with protecting patient safety, everything to do with
shutting down health centers by subjecting providers to unnecessary
restrictions. And that means that far too many people the ri ght to
access abortion is a right in name only. Part of the tactic that
undergirds these bans is not just to shame the person seeking access

Alexis McGill Johnson

to abortion care, but also the people around them who are doing
that. And I think that's what we're seeing, not jus t in Texas, but in
the neighboring states that are also poised to enact similar bans.

Mark Masselli: Ale xis, the last check, hundreds of Texas Women have been forced
to cross state lines to gain access to abortion and women can't
necessarily afford the tim e to travel with all their responsibilities that
they have. It's really become a serious impediment to clinicians
practici ng in Texas and causing strains I would imagine in all the
bordering states, as you just mentioned . Tell us a little more about
what y ou're seeing on the ground, paint a picture for us.

Alexis McGill Johnson: So as you can imagine right, in rendering the right to access abortion
is effectively meaningless in the state . Six weeks is the terminology
but we're really talking about two weeks after this period. So the
logistical nightmare that patients a re going through on top of what,
you know, Texas already had in place, they had a 24 hour mandatory
waiting period mandatory ultrasound and counseling. So the whole
process of getting an appoin tment, not just one appointment but
two appointments prior to cardiac activity that they are allegedly
legislating the abortion against , means that it is not just a logistical
challenge it is an emotional challenge for those who need access to
care.

Durin g the month of September, Planned Parenthood Health Centers
in surrounding states saw a 1,000% increase in patients in Texas .
More Texans were being seen in Oklahoma than Oklahomans. And
that means that people are being forced significant travel distances
outside of state for access to abortion . Some of these other states
have their own restrictions, right , so it means --- we had one patient
who traveled twice to Mississippi from Texas to get an abortion at
Jackson Women's Health Organization. And they are al so facing, you
know, different mandatory waiting periods having to come back in
three days time. What does that mean?

That means people have to take off from work, they have to get
childcare, they have to get access to travel funds and resources. And
we'r e also still asking them to travel during COVID. So it really is
incredibly cruel. We had another patient who traveled hundreds of
miles to Colorado, but she didn't want to put any of her family
members at risk because she didn't know how to interpret the new
law. So she drove by herself . Really understanding who was most
harmed by these restrictions, right?

These are going to be the people who had, you know, likely the least
resources in the first place, folks who have already faced significant
discrimina tion and other barriers to healthcare that we just seen laid
bare over the last couple of years. It's hard to put in words, just how
incredibly emotional it's been. And I think about the providers all the

Alexis McGill Johnson

time who have taken these --- these vows to provide c are no matter
what, who have to deny their own impulses to provide that care, and
really the trauma that they are experiencing as well.

Margaret Flinter: Well, Alexis, really all across the country, Planned Parenthood has
been an essential health care prov ider for decades. And it would
seem that there's a real deterrent effect for women be ing able to
access even the non - abortion services, but the health services, the
routine birth control , the help with spacing families, the help
screenings . What are you se eing in terms of the sort of the spillover
effect of the focus on the abortion laws in terms of just being a
deterrent to people getting the primary health care family planning
care that they've come to count on Planned Parenthood for?

Alexis McGill Johnso n: Yeah, absolutely. And look, I mean, you know, this from just seeing
what's happened during the pandemic, the number of folks who
have just delayed getting care because they haven't wanted to come
out or they haven't had access to the Telehealth care, an d other
ways of providing access to information and education. So, you
know, we were all kind of in a prolonged period of needing more
care. And Planned Parenthood is a critical part of that public health
infrastructure. Every year, millions of people all identities come to
Planned Parenthood for abortion and birth control, STI testing and
treatments, gender affirming care, all of these services that I think in
this moment have become critically important as people are
organizing th eir lives.

It is importa nt right that our doors stay open. It is important that we
continue to expand access to rural care in places where we may be
the first point of entry into the healthcare system. So my biggest fear
around some of these horrific bans and laws is the impact o n our
ability to continue to provide the broad spectrum of health care that
we do b ecause we know that in this time, it's ever more critical. And
that ensuring that people have access to the full spectrum of sexual
reproductive health care, and that they h ave the full spectrum of,
quite frankly, I think the agency that comes with being able to
control and determine your future is such a critical part of what we
also provide. And so we are definitely concerned and are just fighting
as hard as we can to make sure that our doors will stay open, no
matter what .

Mark Masselli: We're speaking today with Alexis McGill Johnson, President and CEO
of Planned Parenthood Federation of America . You know Alexis,
since the 2016 election, we've watched a surge of activism a nd
protest against assaults on rights, whether it's women's health,
voting rights, civil rights . And you run Planned Parenthood's Action
Fund and have really a strong background, personal background in
political activism. What's the prescription or the col lective action

Alexis McGill Johnson

you're calling for?

Alexis McGill Johnson: Yes, I was raised from the cradle to the march right now, to believe
in securing rights for everyone that none of us will be free until we're
all free. But I think what's become even more apparent a nd true in
the last year is that the intersection of all of our movements are
fighting for the same freedoms, right, the freedoms around our
bodies, our rights, our ability to not just survive but to thrive. And
what we have seen is that the intersection o f so many, so many
issues around abortion rights, around racial justice, around our
ability to participate in democracy, that these things are inextricably
linked .

Our patients come to us, you know, perhaps, as I said, for an STI
screening or access to f amily planning or abortion, but when they
leave, they may face a police officer stopping their car, like one of
our patients who was denied an abortion in Texas and had to drive
to Oklahoma for care. We talked about this in our a micus brief that
we filed w ith the Supreme Court . On her way there, she and her
boyfriend who are black, they were pulled over by the police and
questioned about where they were going and why they were going ,
and they were scared. And so I think it is our responsibility to stand
wit h our patients and the many experiences that they are having to
demonstrate that this movement for freedom has to recognize the
ways in which our identities intersect, and fight for the policies that
will continue to protect them in the same way that their healthcare
will.

Margaret Flinter: Well, Alexis , I'm going to maybe try and inject a little bit of good
news and that is the Biden administration has revoked the Trump era
ruling that barred health clinics receiving Title 10 funding, which I
think of is f amily planning funding, from offering patients
information on how to end a pregnancy. I wonder if you can share
with our listeners, how that so called abortion gag rule impacts
access to full reproductive health for our patients, and what do you
think we'l l see once the Biden reversal goes into effect on November
th
8 ? It's hard to build something up after you've kind of taken it
down. I would be curious your thoughts on that .

Alexis McGill Johnson: Yeah, it is tremendous to have a partner in the White House and
throughout the administration that truly understands the
importance of basic family planning healthcare, why it plays such a
critical role in our communities , you know, health education, the
ability to provide people with the full scope of sexual and
reproductive health care services like that is essentially what was
being denied under the Title 10 gag rule that had been in place for
two years by the Trump administration.

Prior to 2019 , every year, Planned Parenthood Health Centers served

Alexis McGill Johnson

about 40% of the four million patients that rely on Title 10. It was
harmful to have the gag rule. It was asking providers to provide
substandard care . It was asking providers to withhold information to
patients on all the options ava ilable to them. It slashed provide r
capacity in half and created mor e barriers to affordable health care.
So the infrastructure is still there and the work that the Biden
administration is doing to also build in kind of equity metrics to
ensure that we are making sure that the very patients that we are
seeing we're seeing them in the most equitable way and hopefully
building Title 10 back better, right, modernizing it .

I am thinking about the variety of patients that should be seeing and
the number of services that should be included in sex ual
reproductive health care. So I'm hopeful . I really appreciate that that
bright spot because it has been a dark month for sure. But it is great
to have partners who are really understanding how critical
expanding access to healthcare broadly is going to be for this
country.

Mark Masselli: Alexis, Supreme Court has signaled twice now that it's unlikely to
move in any meaningful way towards protecting Roe v. Wade. And
we know that Justice Kagan and Sotomayor have spoken out harshly
against the overt reluct ance of the High Court to step in and protect
women's constitutional right. And there has been talk about
expanding the number of justices on the Supreme Court. I'm
wondering what position you will have taken and what do you
expect may happen?

Alexis McGil l Johnson: We are certainly planning for every scenario, but as you indicated,
there is a lot to be concerned about. You know, it is particularly
grave time for abortion rights. And there is no question that Roe is
hanging on by a thread. It has also been meaningless in many states.
I think what we are seeing in response particularly to SB 8 in Texas,
and the idea that the court has taken up Mississippi in such a way
that goes to the essence of Roe whether or not we get to make
decisions pre viability versus the state lawmakers . It means that
people are waking up to the idea that Roe could no longer exist after
half a century. And as you said, just before, it's hard when you take a
ri ght away that has existed for a really long time, you know, people
are going to fight back, they're you already feel the energy and the
hurt. So we're preparing, we're working with our partners to do
whatever comes next. What is true is that there is literally no state in
the Union where banning access to abortion, getting rid of Roe is
popular. What we have right now are a number of states , 26 States
in pa rticular, that have essentially a vocal minority of lawmakers who
are, are creating laws that go against the will of the people. And I
have to believe that when these protections , these federal
protections are potentially gone under Roe, that people will be

Alexis McGill Johnson

pushing for proactive legislation to protect abortion, fighting, you
know, ensuring their lawmakers have respect for our health and
rights. It means that we have to continue do ing the work of abortion
stigma to make sure that people understand it as the common
Essential Health procedure that it is, and making sure that, you
know, people are connecting the dots between what they expect to
be protected on in terms of their constit utional rights, that they
understand how they have been consistently undermined, not just
by their lawmakers, but also by the courts that are intended to be
there to protect them as well.

Margaret Flinter: Thank you so much for that. And we'd like to think that policy would
follow the evidence, right. And one of those that was really very
impressive to me was the experience in Colorado, of making
contraception, particularly long acting, reversible contraception,
basically available free of charge to young w omen, particularly who
would face barriers, the outcome was a very sharp decline in the
number of abortions, a sharp decline, as I understand it, also in the
number of teen pregnancies, and even on outcome measures like
admissions to newborn intensive care units. What are you seeing in
terms of AIDS, basically investing, you know, maybe a little more
upstream around trying to make effective and safe contraception
much more readily available to people regardless of their economic
means?

Alexis: Absolutely. L ook, and I think that's why we are, we're thrilled by the
Biden administration on Title 10, to make sure it's also equitable,
right, and that people are getting significant access to contraception,
this is going to be a really critical part of how we are n avigating in a
particularly in a potentially post Roe era. And we also know
contraception is not a 100% foolproof, and so you know, it does
mean that we will need to continue to fight for access to abortion.
But Colorado is a terrific example. LA County is a wonderful example.
We have 50 wellbeing centers in high schools, where you know,
students are able to leave algebra and geometry class and walk
down the hall and talk to a nurse practitioner, about the choices that
they want to make with respect to thei r bodies, ask for counseling
around contraception, without, you know, losing a moment's way
from their de sk .

There's a community health centers that are also serving the
community. So the parents are able to come in and ask their own
questions for themselv es. And so I think there are so many models
out there that are both advancing from a medical standards and
guidelines practices, but also that what is best for community. And I
think that those are the things that that is going to be the
responsibility for states that have the capacity to expand access to
healthcare in this way, particularly sexual and reproductive health

Alexis McGill Johnson

care .

Their biggest job right now, in addition to seeing the patients that
may come to them from the south and the Midwest, because of
th ese bans, they have to be exporting that imagination back into the
states that people are leaving, because we have to give people a
vision of what is possible.

Mark Masselli: Alex is thinking abou t women's reproductive rights, i t's not only a
national issue , it's a global issue. And I'm wondering, what's the
landscape look like for abortion rights a s you look around , around
the globe? Is there anything that you're hopeful for or concerned
about?

Alexis: Oh, thank you for this question, Mark. Yes, but I'm rem inded Planned
Parenthood has a global arm to it, right. We have a ba n d player
global work. And we just finished listening to a number of our
leaders. I mean, we're seeing La Marea Verde in Argentina. You
know, Mexico has reverse d it policies. You know to t he north of us in
Canada. We have a, you know, Prime Minister who has empowered
a minister focus ed solely on implementing a feminist policy
framework in their work. So you know, from Ireland to Argentina,
the work that is happening to really shi ft norms in some ways they
are going forward leaps and bounds while we are retracting. So we
have so much to learn, I think from our colleagues abroad about
changes in healthcare delivery, which we know is going to shift as
you know, the impact on the number of healt h centers, both with
the pandemic or with some of these, these restrictions, how we
modernize our health care delivery and ensure that we can get to
people that most need access, and also how we continue to
strengthen and build our movements to fight and s how up in the
plazas and make sure that we are linked globally. You know, and I
think that's our work right now, our tagline with our Planned
Parenthood global is how do we continue to back the brave.

And I think about that all the time, because that is th e work that
we're doing right here right now backing the brave as part of the
globe, that the U.S. is making sure that they're the people who are
trying to take our rights away are no match for the people who are
going to continue to defend and do everythi ng they can to maintain
them .

Margaret Flinter: We’ve been speaking today with Alexis McGill Johnson , President
and CEO of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America. You can
learn more about their comprehensive health care services and their
advocacy wo rk by going to plannedparenthood. org or follow them
on Twitter @ PPFA. Alexis, we want to thank you for your tenacity in
the fight for women's reproductive health over a lifetime , for your
activism, your advocacy for health equity. And thank you so much fo r

Alexis McGill Johnson

joining us today on Conversations on Health Care.

Alexis: Thank you so much for having me here. It's been wonderful.

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Mark Masselli: At Conversations on Health Care, we want our audience to be truly in
the know when it comes to the facts about hea lth care reform and
policy. Lori Robertson is an award winning journalist and Managing
Editor of FactCheck.org, a nonpartisan, nonprofit consumer advocate
for voters that aim to reduce the level of deception in U.S. politics.
Lori, what have you got for us this week?

Lori Robertson : Former Secretary of State Colin Powell died from complications of
COVID - 19. Although he was fully vaccinated. He was also 84 years
old and was a cancer patient who had undergone treatment for
multiple myeloma, a rare blood cance r that weakens the immune
system. Those factors put him at higher risk of a serious
breakthrough illness. Powell also had prostate cancer in 2003 and
was being treated for early stage Parkinson's disease , according to
his longtime assistant .

His death does not mean the COVID - 19 vaccines don't work as many
social media posts suggest. Experts say P owell’s death underscores
the need for more people to be vaccinated to help protect not only
themselves but also transmitting the disease to others, especially the
most vulnerable. Experts told us that multiple myeloma patients are
more susceptible to infections in general, because both the disease
and treatments affect the immune system. Data show that the
vaccines are doing remarkably well at protecting people from
infection, severe disease and death. According to the CDC, in the
month of August unvaccinated people we re six times more likely to
test positive for infection with the Coronavirus and 11 times more
likely to die from COVID - 19 tha n the fully vaccinated, b ut no vaccine
is foolproof and some number of breakthrough infections, even
some leading to death are expected.

Preliminary research shows that multiple myeloma patients and
those with other blood cancers are less likely to mount strong
immune responses to vaccination. Evidence also shows that some
immunocompromised people can benefit from an extra dose of the
COVID - 19 vaccines. Powell got his second dose of the Pfizer vaccine
in February, but had not yet gotten a booster shot. And that’s my
fact check for this week. I'm Lori Robertson, Managing Editor of
FactCheck.org.

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Margaret Flinter: F act C heck.org is committed to factual accuracy from the country's
major political players and is a project of the Annenberg Public Policy

Alexis McGill Johnson

Center at the University of Pennsylvania. If you have a fact that you'd
like checked, e - mail us at www.chcradio.com . We'll have
FactCheck.org’s Lori Robertson check it out for you here on
Conversations on Health Care.

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Mark Masselli: E ach week Conversations highlights a bright idea about how to make
wellness a part of our communities and everyday lives. Of the 6.6
million births per year in this country. Over half are unintended. And
among teens, those rates are even higher. Colorado ha s been
conducting an experiment for several years to examine what might
happen if sexually active teens and poor women were offered the
option of long term birth control .

Dr. Larry W olk: What was so striking was the word of mouth amongst these young
women to each other and the network of support that was built to
access this program through these clinics to help the tens of
thousands of women over the course of the four to five years, really
did result in these significant decreases in unintended pregnancie s
and abortions.

Mark Masselli: Dr. Larry W olk , Medical Director of the Colorado Department of
Health and Environment .

Dr. Larry W olk: Th e resultant decrease is 40% plus or minus in both categories
pregnancy and abortion to more than 50 even approaching 60 %
reduction in those unint ended pregnancies and abortions.

Mark Masselli: There was a significant economic benefit to the state as well.

Dr. Larry W olk: We've seen a significant decrease in the number of young moms and
kids applying for and needing public assistance.

Mark Masselli: The incidence of sexually transmitted diseases dropped in this
population as well.

Dr. Larry W olk: And amongst young women 15 to 24 , w e've seen a decrease in
sexually transmitted infections, and the rates are now below the
nation al averages .

Mark Masselli: A free, long term contraception program offered to at risk teens and
women trying to avoid the economic hardship of unplanned
pregnancies leading to a number of positive health and economic
outcomes. Now that's a bright idea.

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Mark Masselli: You've been listening to Conversations on Health Care. I'm Mark
Masselli.

Alexis McGill Johnson
Margaret Flinter: And I'm Margaret Flinter.
Mark Masselli: Peace and Health.
Margaret Flinter: Conversations on Health Care is recorded at WESU at Wesleyan
Unive rsity, streaming live at www.chcradio.com , iTunes, or wherever
you listen to Podcasts. If you have comments, please e - mail us at
[email protected] , or find us on Facebook or Twitter. We love
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