The Quickie: JD Vance’s Sunday Show Went as Well as Expected (Very Poorly)

Welcome to “The Quickie” — Planned Parenthood Action Fund’s daily tipsheet on the top health care & reproductive rights stories of the day. You can read “The Quickie'' online here.

In today’s Quickie: A PP Votes spotlight on Vance, pregnant patients seeking emergency care are being turned away, and  PPFA applauds new CMS guidance.

JD VANCE’S SUNDAY SHOWS WENT AS WELL AS EXPECTED (VERY POORLY): We still don’t understand why the Trump campaign thinks it’s a good idea to put JD Vance out in public when his polling is so underwater and he is clearly very bad at this. But by all means: Let him continue to show the American public just how out of touch he really is.

As Angela Vasquez-Giroux, Vice President of Communications at Planned Parenthood Votes explained, “Donald Trump deployed his VP pick on a desperate Sunday show tour to undo the damage he caused to his own campaign with last week’s incoherent press conference. Just as we expected, JD just kept on digging the hole. While Kamala Harris and Tim Walz are speaking to record crowds in battleground states about how they will fight for our freedoms, J.D. Vance can’t escape his own problematic associations with Project 2025, his insults of American women (and cats for that matter), and his burning desire to control the lives of American families. 

“JD Vance is going to stomp right over our right to control our bodies, lives, and futures. And the consequences of his dangerous positions are real: it means some pregnant people may not be able to get the emergency abortion care they need. It means denying people control of if, when, and how to become parents. And it means putting unqualified politicians in charge of our personal medical decisions. We know what he wants because we’ve heard it repeatedly from Vance himself before: JD Vance wants a national abortion ban, full stop. Voters cannot let Vance and Trump into the White House.”

ABORTION BANS HAVE REAL CONSEQUENCES FOR PREGNANT PEOPLE WHO NEED EMERGENCY CARE: We keep saying it, and it still remains true. New reporting from AP finds that more than 100 pregnant women seeking emergency abortion care have been “turned away or negligently treated” since 2022, in violation of existing federal law. The Biden administration has said that regardless of state abortion bans, hospitals must provide abortion care when necessary to treat an emergency medical condition. Since Roe was overturned, many patients have come forward to share their heartbreaking stories of being turned away or failing to receive essential care, resulting in permanent damage to their reproductive health. And the Supreme Court only kicked the can down the road.

Abortion bans continue to wreak havoc in states with restrictions as well as states without bans, which are adjusting to accommodate the ever-changing landscape of abortion access. As Dara Kass, an emergency medicine doctor and former U.S. Health and Human Services official explained, “It is increasingly less safe to be pregnant and seeking emergency care in an emergency department.”

Read more in AP.

PLANNED PARENTHOOD APPLAUDS NEW CMS GUIDANCE GIVES PATIENTS THE RIGHT TO CHOOSE THEIR PROVIDER, ACCESS TO OTC CONTRACEPTION AND INFERTILITY TREATMENT: In case you missed it, last week the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) dropped new guidance reaffirming Medicaid patients’ federal right to get sexual and reproductive health care at the qualified provider of their choice. The guidance also encourages states to increase access to over-the-counter contraception for people with Medicaid; reaffirms that state Medicaid programs can offer coverage for infertility treatment; and reminds states of their obligation to adhere to important confidentiality protections for people with Medicaid coverage.

Alexis McGill Johnson, president and CEO, Planned Parenthood Federation of America, celebrated the news saying: “Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Planned Parenthood affiliates, and leading sexual and reproductive health care organizations across the country have been calling for this guidance from CMS for years. We are grateful to the Biden-Harris administration for listening to patients and providers on the frontlines of the post-Dobbs abortion access crisis, and issuing this guidance.” 

Read more about the new guidance here.