| | | | |  | | By Chelsea Cirruzzo and Ben Leonard | Presented by the Healthcare Distribution Alliance | With Erin Schumaker
| | |  Former President Donald Trump says he can bridge the country's abortion divide. | Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images | ‘WORST OF BOTH WORLDS’ — Former President Donald Trump wants to negotiate a compromise on abortion that, he says, will result in “peace on that issue for the first time in 52 years.” The problem? No deal will make both sides of the abortion wars happy, POLITICO’s Alice Miranda Ollstein and Megan Messerly report. Trump, who’s pledged to make a statement on abortion this week, has floated the possibility of enacting a federal law prohibiting the procedure after 15 or 16 weeks of pregnancy. But he threatens to upset hardline anti-abortion advocates — who won’t accept anything short of a total ban — if he endorses such a policy, giving Democrats fodder to paint anything that falls short of Roe’s 24-week standard as “extreme.” “You’re getting the worst of both worlds” pitching such a policy, said a GOP political strategist who has worked on several presidential campaigns, including Trump’s failed 2020 bid. “Pro-life groups still aren’t going to be happy, and you’re still supporting a nationwide limit that Democrats will attack,” said the strategist, granted anonymity to speak critically about the former president’s rhetoric. While Trump has suggested that “15 weeks seems to be a number people are agreeing at,” his campaign insists that he believes it should be up to voters to “make decisions for themselves” on the issue at the state level. “President Trump supports preserving life but has also made clear that he supports states' rights because he supports the voters' right to make decisions for themselves,” said Brian Hughes, a senior adviser to the Trump campaign. Still, Trump supporters and independent pollsters believe backing a national ban at 15 weeks is the best approach he could take in a difficult political environment as Republicans continue to struggle with how to talk about the issue post-Roe. And the more pragmatic parts of the anti-abortion movement believe that any federal restrictions on the procedure — which would significantly reduce access to the procedure in blue states like California that have become havens for abortion access — are better than none. “There are parts of the movement that believe strongly that the 15-week approach is the wrong approach because they believe that if we get federal limits of 15 weeks, it’s the most we’ll ever get,” said Bob Heckman, a Republican strategist who consults with anti-abortion groups. WELCOME TO MONDAY PULSE. First an earthquake and now an eclipse? I need to brush up on my earth science. Send your tips, scoops and feedback to ccirruzzo@politico.com and bleonard@politico.com and follow along @ChelseaCirruzzo and @_BenLeonard_.
| | | | YOUR GUIDE TO EMPIRE STATE POLITICS: From the newsroom that doesn’t sleep, POLITICO's New York Playbook is the ultimate guide for power players navigating the intricate landscape of Empire State politics. Stay ahead of the curve with the latest and most important stories from Albany, New York City and around the state, with in-depth, original reporting to stay ahead of policy trends and political developments. Subscribe now to keep up with the daily hustle and bustle of NY politics. | | | | | | | | |  Draft legislation from Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (left) and Sen. Maria Cantwell that aims to protect the privacy of Americans' personal data was released Sunday. | AP Photo | SWEEPING PRIVACY BILL — Bipartisan and bicameral draft legislation unveiled Sunday would allow people to sue data companies for privacy violations of their health information that’s not protected by federal health privacy law, POLITICO’s Rebecca Kern and Alfred Ng report. The draft — known as the American Privacy Rights Act — from House Energy and Commerce Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.) and Senate Commerce Chair Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) would limit the type of data companies can collect and use. The national law would preempt many state data privacy laws, with exemptions for certain health and consumer protection laws, such as health privacy laws, according to a summary of the measure. How we got here: The bill is similar to the American Data Privacy and Protection Act, from McMorris Rodgers and House E&C ranking member Frank Pallone (D-N.J.), which advanced out of the committee in 2022. However, Cantwell opposed the measure alongside former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and a group of California House Democrats who rejected a national standard that would preempt state laws.
| | | | A message from the Healthcare Distribution Alliance: The healthcare distribution industry leverages its expertise and partnerships throughout the supply chain to solve some of the toughest healthcare challenges. Distributors deliver 10 million medicines across the country each day — from the biggest cities to the smallest towns – supporting providers and pharmacists and ensuring medicines are available to patients. Learn more. | | | | | MEASLES ON THE RISE — Half the nation’s 113 measles cases reported this year are among people in Chicago, says the CDC. The rest are scattered across 18 states, Chelsea reports. Most patients are unvaccinated, the agency said.
|  | | The 2024 case count as of Friday surpasses the number of cases for all of 2023 and is just shy of the 121 cases in 2022. According to the CDC, 83 percent of cases are among people who are unvaccinated or have unknown vaccine status. Half of those with measles are under age 5, and 58 percent of cases have required hospitalization, mainly among children. In Chicago, public health officials released a list of possible places and times people may have been exposed to measles, including on public transit and at a church, three public schools and a Walmart. Officials also said the city has a high vaccination rate, meaning most people are protected from illness. CDC Director Mandy Cohen told the World Vaccine Congress in Washington last week that measles cases are “the canary in the coal mine” or a sign of a downward trend in immunization for many vaccine-preventable illnesses. In the 2022-2023 school year, 93.1 percent of kindergartners were vaccinated against measles, a drop from 95 percent in the 2019-2020 school year. Ninety-five percent vaccination coverage is considered optimal to prevent outbreaks. CDC TO DOCS: CHECK FOR BIRD FLU — The CDC is urging providers to consider bird flu when assessing sick people who might work with cattle. The agency’s alert comes after a dairy worker was confirmed last week to have the avian flu after exposure to an infected herd. Bird flu can look like an acute respiratory illness or conjunctivitis — pinkeye — in humans. Health officials have said the risk to the general public remains low. The CDC is telling providers to start treatment immediately for people suspected of having the avian flu. It also recommends people use personal protective equipment, including gloves, eye protection and masks, when handling livestock. Read more about what’s known about avian flu from POLITICO’s David Lim and Marcia Brown. THIS WEEK ON THE HILL — The Senate returns today, and the House gets back to business tomorrow. Here are some health care issues they’ll be tackling this week: — The House Energy and Commerce Health Subcommittee will consider several pieces of legislation Wednesday that would improve patient access to telehealth, including one bill that would remove geographic requirements for telehealth — a concept lawmakers have long pushed but have failed to make stick. Another bill focuses on permanently expanding pandemic-era telehealth provisions for Medicare beneficiaries, which will expire at the end of the year. — The House Oversight and Accountability Committee will hold a hearing with FDA Commissioner Robert Califf on Thursday. “We will hold the Commissioner accountable for what the FDA is doing to address ongoing [consumer health] crises,” committee Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) said in the hearing notice. Califf has faced criticism from Republicans for his handling of the infant formula shortage and has also been pressed by the committee on drug shortages. Califf will likely field questions about the agency’s tobacco product regulation.
| | | | Easily connect with the right N.Y. State influencers and foster the right relationships to champion your policy priorities. POLITICO Pro. Inside New York. Learn more. | | | | | | | | | SLUG MUCUS SCIENCE — A new medical gel model that can seal wounds inside the body has slugs to thank for its success. Harvard bioengineers have created a gel adhesive modeled after the Dusky Arion slug, which uses mucus to glue itself in place to prevent predators from ripping it off surfaces, Erin reports. “The gel performed better than currently used surgical sealants in an animal model,” NIH Director Monica Bertagnolli wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter. Why it matters: No single adhesive on the market offers a combination of strength, flexibility, nontoxicity and the ability to withstand movement, according to the researchers. Researchers designed an adhesive that could stick to wet, moving surfaces, such as a beating heart, and stretch up to 20 times its length. What’s next: Researchers envision using the gel to attach medical devices to organs and eventually engineering it to dissolve after the body heals from an injury. They’ve also formed a startup, Limax Biosciences, to commercialize their technology. The gel has yet to be tested in humans.
| | | | A message from the Healthcare Distribution Alliance:   | | | | | Emilie Lopes-Fernandes has been promoted to head of European policy at the Digital Therapeutics Alliance. She previously was a program lead.
| | The New York Times reports on why some patients are being saddled with large medical bills despite having health coverage with big insurers. NBC News reports on how networks that mail abortion pills operate amid a Supreme Court case on mifepristone. STAT News reports on a study challenging the use of beta blockers after a heart attack.
| | | | A message from the Healthcare Distribution Alliance: Healthcare distributors work hard to ensure patients have the medicines they need. As the vital link in healthcare, distributors deliver medicines safely and reliably each day to nearly 330,000 frontline providers, pharmacies, hospitals and other sites of care across the country — from the biggest cities to the smallest towns.
When a supply chain disruption occurs, healthcare distributors are there to help lessen the impact. We're problem solvers: focused on collaborative solutions to reduce negative outcomes on patients and ensure a more resilient pharmaceutical supply chain. Learn more. | | | | | | | Follow us on Twitter | | | | Follow us | | | | |
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