The Reproductive Freedom Alliance taps its first leader

Meet the new head of a governors’ coalition on abortion rights

A nonpartisan coalition of 23 governors working to protect and expand abortion rights has selected its first leader, according to an announcement shared exclusively with the Health Brief.

The Reproductive Freedom Alliance tapped Christina Chang as its inaugural executive director. Chang, whose first day was yesterday, previously served as chief program officer at the New York City Health Department. Her résumé also includes leadership positions at the public health organization Vital Strategies and Planned Parenthood.

The bigger picture: Chang’s appointment comes roughly five months ahead of November’s elections, when voters will choose governors to replace three term-limited alliance members. One of those contests is expected to be among the most pivotal (and expensive) gubernatorial races this year.

At the NYC Health Department, Chang implemented pioneering reproductive health-care policies that have become a model for other states, including a municipally funded call center for abortion services launched in November 2022 and the provision of medication abortion in public health clinics — both national firsts.

“Governors wield enormous power and have so many tools at their disposal to protect our rights,” Chang said in an interview yesterday. “One of the benefits of the alliance is that we already have an established infrastructure and vehicle now in place for us to be able to respond nimbly and creatively to whatever landscape we’re going to be facing.”

A closer look at the alliance

Since its launch in February 2023 (first announced by my colleague Rachel Roubein), staff from the governors’ offices have met virtually each month, forming working groups on topics such as medication abortion, maternal health and the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act.

Governors and staff members will convene in Minneapolis for the alliance’s second in-person meeting in coming weeks, with working groups preparing for a possible federal abortion ban and threats to contraception and fertility treatments like in vitro fertilization, among other targets.

Chang said the alliance is also preparing for election season. “We’re thinking about the different scenarios and the options that we have in planning for contingencies and what we can do in the face of hostile environments,” she said.

In the governor’s mansion

The alliance will closely follow the nation’s 11 gubernatorial races this year, which include elections in eight states where incumbent governors aren’t vying for another term.

Among the governors not seeking reelection are two alliance members from states with Democrat-led legislatures that have bolstered abortion access since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade: Delaware Gov. John Carney (D) and Washington Gov. Jay Inslee (D).

The race to replace the third, North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper (D), comes with particularly high stakes. Republican Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson is facing Democratic Attorney General Josh Stein in the divided battleground state, seeking to reclaim a seat the GOP lost in 2016.

Reproductive rights are already emerging as a major factor in the race. Democrats have focused their campaign arguments on Robinson’s rhetoric on the LGBTQ community and restricting abortion access. The Greensboro native has defended his past remarks by saying he can separate his religious views from public office and wants to make North Carolina a “destination state for life.”

Stein, meanwhile, has secured endorsements from several abortion rights groups. As state attorney general, he has defended providers offering abortion care from attempts to cut off their public health funding and joined an amicus brief to uphold the legality of mifepristone before the Supreme Court, among other actions.

The Post has been covering a highly virulent bird flu outbreak in dairy cattle that also infected at least three dairy workers. We’ve addressed some common questions in our earlier coverage, but we’d like to hear what you still want to know as we keep covering this topic and pressing government and industry officials for answers.

Email my colleagues fenit.nirappil@washpost.com and lena.sun@washpost.com with your questions or any suggestions for what you’d like to see in future coverage.

Fauci dismisses ‘preposterous’ allegations that he led covid coverup

Fauci, who left the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the end of 2022, said Republicans have distorted his email discussions on whether the virus could have leaked from a lab, my colleague Dan Diamond reports.

“We spend our whole life trying to determine the causes of infectious diseases, and stop them to protect the American people,” Fauci said yesterday while testifying before the House panel investigating the nation’s pandemic response. He denied pressuring colleagues to reach a conclusion on the virus’s origins.

Republicans also pushed Fauci on his relationship with the EcoHealth Alliance, a nonprofit that received federal funding for risky virus research in Wuhan, China. They zeroed in on David Morens as well, a former Fauci deputy who deleted emails and took other steps to evade federal records law as he communicated with EcoHealth officials and other colleagues.

• Fauci sought to distance himself from Morens, saying he “knew nothing” about his former colleague’s actions and rebuked him for violating government policies.

Democrats rallied around the infectious-disease expert, with ranking Democrat Raul Ruiz (Calif.) urging the GOP-led panel to drop its “narrative” that Fauci and his colleagues covered up the virus’s possible creation in a laboratory. The 83-year-old Fauci testified that he and his family have faced persistent death threats over allegations that he played a role in sparking the pandemic.

But Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), one of Fauci’s most persistent critics, briefly brought the hearing to a halt by accusing Fauci of wrongdoing with lab experiments on beagles and other matters, saying the doctor should be in prison. Democrats protested Greene’s accusations, and the covid panel’s Republican chair, Rep. Brad Wenstrup (Ohio), rebuked her for violating decorum.

Childbirth is deadlier for American women than those in other high-income nations, The Post’s Sabrina Malhi reports, citing a new study from the Commonwealth Fund.

By the numbers: There are about 22 maternal deaths for every 100,000 live births in the United States. For Black women, that number rises to 49.5 deaths per 100,000.

• To put it into context: 10 of the 14 high-income counties listed in the report had a death rate of less than 10 per 100,000 live births.

The bigger picture: More than 80 percent of pregnancy-related deaths in America are preventable, but factors including a shortage of maternity care providers, limited access to after-birth home visits and lack of guaranteed paid parental leave have increased the risk of maternal mortality.

How SCOTUS could leave the door open to future abortion pill challenges

My colleagues Ann E. Marimow and Caroline Kitchener are out with a deep dive this morning into why the Supreme Court’s ruling in a closely watched case over whether to limit access to mifepristone is unlikely to end the legal fight over the widely used abortion medication.

The short answer: Should the justices rule that the antiabortion doctors who filed the lawsuit don’t have the standing to sue (as they seemed inclined to do during oral arguments this spring), they could leave an opening for three states to try to quickly revive the challenge to abortion pills.

The anticipated push by Missouri, Kansas and Idaho would open a new round of litigation, keeping the issue before the courts and creating fresh uncertainty about access to the drug in a presidential year where abortion is a central topic.

In court filings, the states have already made the case that they should be allowed to pursue a challenge in part because of what they describe as added public insurance costs for emergency medical care and mental health support due to complications from abortion pills. Missouri and Idaho officials say they have a separate interest in enforcing their states’ strict abortion bans.

Next steps: The high court could rule in the case as soon as Thursday. A decision has to land by the end of the court’s term in late June or early July.

• Senate Democrats unveiled a legislative package yesterday that would establish a nationwide right to access IVF, amid a larger election-year push that seeks to spotlight some Republicans’ unpopular positions on reproductive rights.
• On the move: The Better Medicare Alliance has tapped Rebecca Buck to serve as its next senior vice president of communications. Buck most recently served as senior director at the public affairs firm Penta Group.
• The federal health department is expanding its Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinic Demonstration Program, allowing 10 more states to collect Medicaid funding for all-in-one mental health and substance use clinics offering 24-hour crisis services, The Hill’s Alejandra O’connell-Domenech reports.

In Baltimore’s senior homes, overdoses plague a forgotten generation (By Nick Thieme, Alissa Zhu and Jessica Gallagher | The New York Times)

Delays, denials, debt and the crowing privatization of Medicare (By Michael Sainato | The Guardian)

Lawsuits pile up over state laws on discounts for hospitals’ contract pharmacies (By Brendan Pierson | Reuters)

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