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Protesters outside Supreme Court as justices hear arguments in high-profile abortion case
© Julia Nikhinson

The Los Angeles Times answers an enduring question: How is it possible that Arizona iced tea cans still cost 99 cents?

Today, Republicans are preparing for the possibility the Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade as Oklahoma enacts a new abortion law.  

Welcome to Overnight Health Care, where we’re following the latest moves on policy and news affecting your health. For The Hill, we’re Peter SullivanNathaniel Weixel and Joseph Choi. Someone forward you this newsletter? Subscribe here.

GOP prepares in case Roe v. Wade is overturned 

Republicans are plotting out their messaging strategy in case the Supreme Court overturns the landmark Roe v. Wade decision authorizing abortion rights. 

The GOP strategy is to lead with science-based arguments and portray those in favor of abortion rights as extremists. 

The Republican Study Committee, the largest conservative caucus in the House, sent a messaging memo last week that advised members to communicate the message that “the Left holds the extremist position” on abortion. 

“Today’s Left believes in a position even more extreme than Roe: taxpayer-funded abortion, on demand, until birth,” said the memo, first reported by National Review. 

All eyes on Supreme Court: The Supreme Court could overturn Roe v. Wade when it considers the constitutionality of a Mississippi law prohibiting abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy in the case of Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health.  

If the landmark 1973 decision legalizing abortion is overturned, much of the most consequential legislative and policy movement will happen in states with Republican control that will have new authority to restrict abortion procedures. 

Read more here.  

WH calls for action on Oklahoma abortion ban 

The White House on Tuesday called on Congress to pass legislation to codify Roe v. Wade in response to an Oklahoma abortion law, which makes it a felony to perform the procedure.  

The Women’s Health Protection Act “would shut down these attacks and codify this long-recognized, constitutional right,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said in a statement on Tuesday. 

She called the Oklahoma abortion ban the country’s “most restrictive legislation” on reproductive health.  

Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt (R) signed the bill into law on Tuesday, which stipulates that performing an abortion is punishable by up to 10 years in prison.  

The only exception is for abortions performed to save the pregnant individual’s life. 

“Make no mistake: the actions today in Oklahoma are a part of disturbing national trend attacking women’s rights and the Biden Administration will continue to stand with women in Oklahoma and across the country in the fight to defend their freedom to make their own choices about their futures,” Psaki said. 

The law is part of a slew of legislation in Republican-led states aimed to scale back reproductive rights and is likely to face legal challenges.  

Similar bills in Arkansas and Alabama have been blocked by the courts. 

Read more here.

? Breaking the morning show mold. Bursting the Beltway bubble. TUNE-IN TO RISING, now available as a podcast.

FEDERAL AGENCIES WARN OF ILLEGAL ONLINE ADDERALL SALES

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) on Tuesday issued warnings to two websites that the agencies said were illegally selling Schedule II stimulants, such as Adderall, without prescriptions. 

The two agencies said warning letters had been issued to Kubapharm.com and Premiumlightssupplier.com for selling Adderall without prescriptions and placing consumers at risk. These two websites also failed to register their online pharmacies, according to the government. 

Consumers who have bought medications through these sites have been asked to dispose of the drugs and to cease making such purchases. 

As the FDA noted in its announcement, illegally marketed drugs are at risk of being counterfeit, expired or contaminated when purchased.  

DEA Administrator Anne Milgram stressed that the safety and legitimacy of pills bought on these sites cannot be trusted. 

Read more here.

REPORTED STD CASES SURGED IN LATE 2020

New insight into how the pandemic affected STD reporting was released on STD Awareness Week. 

Reports of sexually transmitted diseases dropped in the early months of the pandemic but saw a resurgence toward the end of 2020, according to new data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). 

According to the CDC’s 2020 STD Surveillance Report, cases of gonorrhea and syphilis were up 10 percent and 7 percent, respectively, at the end of 2020 when compared to 2019. However, cases of chlamydia in 2020 dropped by 13 percent when compared to the previous year. 

The decline in reported cases most likely had to do with a decrease in STD screenings and underdiagnoses instead of an actual drop in infections, the CDC noted. 

Other factors that likely contributed to the drop in reports were the decrease of in-person health care services, public health workers focusing more on COVID-19 than STDs, lack of health insurance coverage due to unemployment and telemedicine services not catching some infections. 

Read more here

BA.2 now almost 90 percent of US cases: CDC 

Nearly 90 percent of new COVID-19 cases in the United States are now a more transmissible subvariant of omicron known as BA.2, according to new data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.   

The data, which records infections for the week ending April 9, shows that 86 percent of cases are from the BA.2 variant.  

The BA.2 variant is estimated to be about 30 percent more transmissible than the original omicron variant, which was already more transmissible than the delta variant.  

The better news: There is no evidence that the BA.2 subvariant evades the vaccines to a greater extent or causes more severe disease.   

It does appear to be fueling a new uptick in cases, but it remains to be seen how sharp an increase there will be. There are so far no signs of the massive spike seen from the original omicron variant over the winter.   

Experts stress that people who are vaccinated and boosted have strong protection from severe disease.   

Cases and hospitalizations are still at some of their lowest levels of the pandemic.   

Read more here.

WHAT WE’RE READING

  • A shortage of baby formula is worsening and causing some stores to limit sales (NPR
  • Driven by fentanyl, rates of fatal teen overdoses doubled in 2020 (Stat
  • America Created Its Own Booster Problems (The Atlantic)  

STATE BY STATE

  • CDC warns of ‘large, ongoing’ meningitis outbreak in Florida among gay and bisexual men (USA Today
  • Alabama law banning transgender medication challenged in two lawsuits (CBS News)  
  • State hospital loses federal funds due to repeated safety issues (Montana Public Radio

THE HILL OP-EDS

That’s it for today, thanks for reading. Check out The Hill’s Health Care page for the latest news and coverage. See you tomorrow.

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