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Delivered daily by 10 a.m., Pulse examines the latest news in health care politics and policy. | | | | |  | | By Krista Mahr and Sarah Owermohle | With help from Daniel Lippman Editor’s Note: POLITICO Pulse is a free version of POLITICO Pro Health Care's morning newsletter, which is delivered to our s each morning at 6 a.m. The POLITICO Pro platform combines the news you need with tools you can use to take action on the day’s biggest stories. Act on the news with POLITICO Pro.
| | | — Democrats’ vows to defend Roe are translating to rallies for November midterm votes, so far. — Republican lawmakers distanced themselves from the news, instead questioning how the draft decision was obtained. — CDC’s mask mandate for travel would have ended Tuesday, but legal authority is still in question. WELCOME TO WEDNESDAY PULSE — The lone star tick , whose bite can render victims allergic to red meat forever, is becoming more common in the D.C. area. It’s got a white spot on its back — you’ve been warned. Send your favorite steak marinades, news and tips to kmahr@politico.com and sowermohle@politico.com.
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People convened before the Supreme Court Tuesday to protest a draft decision that would overturn Roe v. Wade. | Alex Brandon/AP Photo | DEMOCRATS SCRAMBLE FOR ROE DEFENSE — Shouts of “Do something, Democrats!” broke out on the Supreme Court’s steps following POLITICO’s report that court conservatives voted to eliminate national abortion rights protections. In reality: There isn’t much Democrats can do before the final ruling comes down, our Alice Miranda Ollstein and Megan Messerly write. Most states have finished, or are nearly finished, with their legislative sessions. In the months ahead, much of the abortion-rights response is expected to fall to medical and activist groups opening abortion clinics, setting up abortion pill delivery and raising money for patients’ travel to other states.
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| There isn’t a federal roadmap despite Democratic majorities. Officials on Tuesday didn’t articulate a clear strategy for bills or executive actions to shore up abortion rights ahead of the expected June ruling but instead highlighted the need to harness the outrage to turn out voters in November. The focus on the midterms is a tacit admission that while Democrats hold power — controlling the White House, both chambers of Congress, 22 governors’ mansions and 18 state legislatures — they remain unable to meaningfully protect abortion rights in much of the country, Alice and Megan write. President Joe Biden talked about abortion for the first time in his presidency Tuesday, also leaning on the November midterms. “It will fall on our nation’s elected officials at all levels of government to protect a woman’s right to choose,” he said in a statement. “And it will fall on voters to elect pro-choice officials this November.” Many actions appear to be symbolic with little chance of effecting change or protecting reproductive rights. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer is teeing up another vote on a bill that would prohibit states from enacting new abortion bans. And despite Biden’s pleas, Democrats in Congress don’t even have a solid majority for action. Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) made it clear Tuesday that his long-held anti-abortion-rights views aren’t altered by the possible fall of Roe, meaning Democrats lack even 50 votes in the Senate to adopt abortion-rights protections, let alone the 60 they currently need to overcome a filibuster. “I’m not bashful about where I stand,” Manchin told reporters. “I think I’ve been clear for the last 40 years.” READ MORE: With roughly half of the states positioned to ban or restrict the ability to terminate a pregnancy and numerous heavily populated states on the East and West coasts likely to maintain access to abortion, the impact of the high court’s anticipated action could make America a country of haves and have-nots when it comes to abortion rights.
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Politico Illustration | WHILE REPUBLICANS DECLINE TO CLAIM VICTORY — Most Republican lawmakers kept their eye on the legal fight Tuesday, focusing not on the win for their base if Roe is overturned but on the draft opinion’s leak. At Tuesday’s private Republican Party lunch, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, who’s been instrumental in shaping the court’s conservative majority, told his members to concentrate on the breach of the draft opinion in their responses, particularly if they felt uncomfortable with addressing the substance of Justice Samuel Alito’s document, reports POLITICO’s Burgess Everett. And so they did. Republican lawmakers who have long hoped the court would repeal Roe’s establishment of abortion rights demanded investigations, firings and even prosecutions for the breach, write POLITICO’s Kyle Cheney and Andrew Desiderio.
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Annette Choi, POLITICO Data & Graphics | Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), who called for the leaker to be disbarred, was one of the few Republicans to speak approvingly of the substance of Alito’s draft, calling it “voluminously researched, tightly argued, and morally powerful.” McConnell, for his part, distanced the future of Roe from his long-standing push to reshape the federal judiciary, taking some Democrats by surprise. “McConnell prepared for this with his refusal to fill the vacancy of Scalia. It was by design an effort to make sure that this day would come,” Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) said. “It’s exactly what he wanted. More than anything else, this was the trademark decision for the modern Trump party.”
| | | | SUBSCRIBE TO NATIONAL SECURITY DAILY : Keep up with the latest critical developments from Ukraine and across Europe in our daily newsletter, National Security Daily. The Russian invasion of Ukraine could disrupt the established world order and result in a refugee crisis, increased cyberattacks, rising energy costs and additional disruption to global supply chains. Go inside the top national security and foreign-policymaking shops for insight on the global threats faced by the U.S. and its allies and what actions world leaders are taking to address them. Subscribe today. | | | | | | | | CDC, MASKS AND DUELING FLORIDA JUDGES — The CDC travel mask mandate would have ended or been extended on Tuesday had a district judge in Florida not intervened last month and put a nationwide injunction on the public health order. The Department of Justice appealed the ruling last month but didn’t seek a stay on the injunction, effectively ending the travel mask mandate. On Tuesday, the CDC issued a recommendation that everyone ages 2 and older keep masking up on planes, buses, trains and other forms of public transport, citing current data and projections of Covid trends, among other factors. Here’s where things get a little weird: On Friday, another Florida judge came to the opposite conclusion of his colleague and ruled that the CDC does, in fact, have the authority to mandate mask-wearing on public transport, as well as testing for people arriving in the U.S. on international flights. What does that mean for the future of masks on planes, the CDC’s and federal public health authorities’ ability to issue mandates? Hard to say now, but it does mean the DOJ is in a slightly better position today than it was a week ago if it chooses to pursue its appeal. Meanwhile, on the Hill, Republicans managed to pin down DOT Secretary Pete Buttigieg on saying he thought it was right, under current conditions, for the mandate to end when it did but that the government is pursuing its appeal of the first Florida ruling because “it’s important to establish the CDC’s authorities in this regard.” WHCD SUPERSPREADER ? NO, BUT — ABC News’ chief Washington correspondent Jonathan Karl tested positive for Covid-19 days after shaking hands with President Joe Biden during White House Correspondents’ Dinner, reports POLITICO’S Max Tani. Karl, who tested negative before attending the event on Saturday, also sat next to Kim Kardashian. Everyone who attended was required to show proof of vaccination and a negative same-day test. Still, many, including the president’s top medical adviser, Anthony Fauci, thought it sounded a little dicey. Daily Show host Trevor Noah put it well when he asked attendees during his act, “Like, do you read any of your own newspapers?… You guys spent the last two years telling everyone the importance of wearing masks and avoiding large, indoor gatherings. Then the second someone offers you a free dinner, you all turn into Joe Rogan, huh?”
| | | THE OTHER PANDEMIC RISK FOR BABIES — While parents continue to wait for a Covid-19 vaccine for kids under 5, another risk for young children during the pandemic has come into focus: families’ continuing economic struggles. A report released on Tuesday by early-childhood nonprofit Zero to Three found that 40 percent of babies were living in families with poor or low-income families, which were more likely than wealthier families to experience economic insecurity during the pandemic. As many families returned to nonparental child care in 2021, fewer low-income families could do so, because they either couldn’t afford outside child care or had trouble accessing federally funded child-care programs. As a result, mental health among young children and caregivers alike hasn’t bounced back to pre-pandemic levels, though they have slightly improved. “Higher rates of caregiver anxiety, depression, and stress in 2021 were directly related to increases in young children’s emotional distress,” the report read. The states that ranked the highest in how children and families are supported: Colorado, Connecticut, District of Columbia, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington. The lowest: Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nevada, South Carolina, Texas, Wyoming. See the full data here.
| | | | STEP INSIDE THE WEST WING: What's really happening in West Wing offices? Find out who's up, who's down, and who really has the president’s ear in our West Wing Playbook newsletter, the insider's guide to the Biden White House and Cabinet. For buzzy nuggets and details that you won't find anywhere else, subscribe today. | | | | | | | | — The Consumer Healthcare Products Association has hired Logan Tucker as director of communications and media relations. Tucker was most recently a senior consultant in Deloitte ’s government and public services group. — Former FDA chief of staff Keagan Lenihan has joined Philip Morris International asvice president of government affairs and public policy and head of its D.C. office. Lenihan also previously worked as FDA associate commissioner for external affairs and HHS senior counsel during the Trump administration. She most recently worked for medical device company Altoida. — AmeriCorps announced Tuesday that AJ Pearlman has been selected as director of Public Health AmeriCorps, a partnership with the CDC. She comes from HHS, where she served as the chief of staff for Covid-19 response.
| | | Employees at the Guttmacher Institute plan to form a union in what employees say is a needed boost in morale at the nation’s largest reproductive health research organizations, The 19th’s Shefali Luthra reports. Justice Alito’s draft opinion on abortion could open the door for other constitutional rights to be eroded, Boston University law professor Robert L. Tsai argues in POLITICO Magazine. Amazon’s PillPack paid nearly $6 million to settle a fraud suit related to overcharging on insulin, Axios’ Erin Brodwin reports. | | | | Follow us on Twitter | | | | Follow us | | | | |  |
