It's SCOTUS month

The Supreme Court is set to hand down a slew of decisions this month that could impact federal health agencies, provisions of care, and the battle against misinformation. The court's announcing a batch of decisions today at 10 a.m., in fact. Some of the cases we're watching for, from my co-author Sarah Owermohle:

Abortion pill access. This lawsuit — over whether the FDA acted capriciously and politically when easing restrictions on the abortion pill mifepristone, and that in turn put anti-abortion doctors at risk — could have massive repercussions for the agency's authority and patients' access to a commonly used abortion method.
Emergency abortions. Idaho's attorney general and state Republicans are fighting an HHS move to require abortion care in life-threatening situations. HHS argues that Idaho's abortion ban doesn't comply with federal EMTALA rules, but justices didn't seem wholly convinced by that argument in April.

Covid-19 misinformation. The court is wrestling with whether White House and federal health officials overstepped their authority when urging social media giants to remove or downgrade misleading posts about Covid's origins, masking, and vaccine safety. Government lawyers argue this was a vital use of the president's bully pulpit to combat dangerous theories, but the case will come down to whether the administration coerced companies.
Sweeping regulatory authority. A lawsuit over fishing regulations could spell the end for courts' deference to regulatory agencies on the powers Congress gave them. This case revolves around the decadeslong so-called Chevron doctrine, which has let agencies like Medicare reasonably interpret their powers to issue industry regulations. The court has chipped away at this authority for a few years, notably with AHA v. Becerra, though it notably didn't deal Chevron a death blow with that decision.

capitol hill

BIOSECURE's fear factor

It can take years for a new law to make an impact, but the BIOSECURE Act seems to already be having its intended effect. The bill still is not a sure thing, and it could be watered down, but industry is acting like it's already law, STAT's John Wilkerson writes.

BIOSECURE aims to slow China's rapid rise in biotechnology. Committees in both the House and Senate passed the bill nearly unanimously.

Word at BIO's international conference is that American contract manufacturers are doing gangbuster business as biotechs scramble to find alternatives to Chinese manufacturers, according to Meghana Keshavan, who is in San Diego talking to conference attendees. That's also the sense on Wall Street. The investment bank William Blair has been monitoring the situation and told investors, "the bill is already on its way to achieving its intended goal, which is to force drug manufacturing back to the U.S."

public health

Capitol Hill isn't engaged in H5N1 response… yet

Despite an uptick in the number of dairy herds infected with the H5N1 bird flu virus, the White House isn't yet reaching out to Capitol Hill for more resources, lawmakers told me in the hallway this week. The USDA is currently funding $842 million in response activities through the Commodity Credit Corporation.

Senate health committee ranking member Bill Cassidy (R-La.) said he met with CDC Director Mandy Cohen about the bird flu response, and that she texted him after the third human case — this one with respiratory symptoms — was detected. But he also said the administration isn't making any formal requests at this point.

"I have met with the CDC director… so far there's no legislative plans. I think that they have the tools they need to address it," Cassidy said.

Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), who chairs the Senate Appropriations Committee's health subcommittee, said she's held virtual roundtables with stakeholders in Wisconsin and sent letters to the Biden administration to ensure the relevant agencies are cooperating well together. (A reminder that that's not always the case.) She said that additional funding hasn't come up in conversations with the Biden administration, but she wants to ensure agencies have adequate resources for surveillance.

"I think we really need to stay on top of it. I'm not sure that takes the form of introducing a bill and passing a law right, but it's something that I am very, very focused on," Baldwin said.

reproductive rights

Senate contraception vote fails amid GOP blowback

SARAH OWERMOHLE/STAT

Senate Democrats' efforts to secure Americans' access to contraception — and require providers to supply it — failed to advance on a 51-39 vote Wednesday. Two Republicans, Maine's Susan Collins and Alaska's Lisa Murkowski, voted for the measure, yet 26 others called it "fear-mongering" by Democrats to "score cheap political points" in a memo.

While those Republicans insisted there is no threat to contraception access in the U.S., some anti-abortion advocates have increasingly called for methods like intrauterine devices and even Plan B to be restricted. The issue came up in a Tuesday HELP committee hearing on abortion rights, Sarah writes. An anti-abortion advocate told senators she considers copper IUDs to be abortifacients because they "prevent implantation, even if fertilization has occurred" and avoided saying whether she'd provide an IUD to a patient.

Staff heading to the Capitol that morning would likely have passed a 20-foot inflatable IUD erected by the Americans for Contraception ahead of the vote. "Surprisingly, a lot of people, including a lot of men, are able to recognize that it is a giant inflatable IUD," Laura Packard, a consultant with the group, told STAT. "Perhaps in years past, we did not need a giant inflatable IUD, but given what's at stake, and the Supreme Court rulings, clearly now we do."

Where does one get a 20-foot IUD? Packard said a "friendly organization" provided it. The intrepid STAT team went looking for medical inflatables online, and there's some surprisingly (scarily?) authentic options.

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What we're reading

FDA advisory panel votes overwhelmingly against MDMA therapy for PTSD, STAT
In Tennessee, Ballad Health gets an A grade no matter how its hospitals performed, KFF Health News
First Opinion: Close a regulatory loophole in the ACA to provide vaccine access for all Americans, STAT
$30 too much a month keeps a cancer patient in Georgia from cheaper care, NPR