The Quickie: PP Votes: Been There, Done That: Risk Pools Are a Terrible Idea but JD Vance Doesn’t Seem to Care

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, PPAF prez talks abortion in the election, and TX’s abortion ban causes rise in maternal mortality.

BEEN THERE, DONE THAT: RISK POOLS ARE A TERRIBLE IDEA BUT JD VANCE DOESN’T SEEM TO CARE: A long time ago, in a land far far away, people could get kicked off their insurance for having a pre-existing condition. Except it wasn’t that long ago, and it wasn’t that far away – after all the Affordable Care Act only became law in 2010. 

Maybe JD Vance just doesn't remember that time, but one thing about him? –– he will continue to prove why he and his running mate are terrible choices for the country. At a rally in North Carolina, Vance was all in on returning to that disastrous time when people who had chronic conditions, cancer, or were pregnant struggled to get care. Sound familiar? Again, Trump and Vance want to return us to a time when we couldn’t control our bodies, lives, and futures. 

We’re counting down the days to November 5 and until then, Planned Parenthood Votes will be on the front lines sounding the alarm about the threat a Trump-Vance administration poses. 
 

PP ACTION FUND PREZ ON ABORTION IN THE ELECTION: This weekend, Alexis McGill Johnson, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Action Fund joined MSNBC’s Alex Witt to discuss abortion in the election. Alexis detailed why reproductive freedom is so important for Americans by saying, “Women over the last two years, in particular, fully understand what it has meant for our fundamental freedoms to control our own bodies to be taken away from us. It is very core to our ability to decide if, when, and how we become pregnant. How that correlates to the families we are already taking care of, whether that correlates to the career opportunities, the education opportunities, or just the lives that we want to live and imagine for ourselves.”

In addressing concerns over the economy as another top issue in this year's election Alexis explained how interconnected the two issues are saying, “Whether she’s [Kamala Harris] talking about the care economy, or building the middle class out reproductive freedom is a fundamental piece of what that means.”

Watch the full interview on MSNBC here.

TEXAS ABORTION BAN IS CAUSING A RISE IN MATERNAL MORTALITY: A new investigation of public health data found that the number of Texans who died while pregnant, during birth, or shortly after grew after the state’s 2021 abortion ban. Between 2019 and 2022, Texas saw a 56% increase in its maternal mortality cases, compared to an 11% increase nationwide.

Kaitlyn Kash, an Austin resident, shared the story of her second pregnancy painting a picture of the devastating reality of Texas’ abortion ban. She and her husband were told it was very unlikely their baby would survive, but it was a month after SB 8 had gone into effect. Kash was advised to seek care outside of Texas and was faced with protestors outside the health center. She shared, “I was being treated like a criminal. I didn’t get the dignity that I deserved to say goodbye to my child.”

Read more from NBC