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Lost in the anxiety this year over the fate of Roe v. Wade is the reality that state legislatures nationwide are already taking steps to effectively ban all abortions. Not even three months into 2019, lawmakers in a dozen states have proposed so-called heartbeat bills, which would outlaw abortion at around six weeks of pregnancy, when a fetal heartbeat can be detected, and thus make it all but impossible for nearly all women to get the procedure. Six of those bills have passed in at least one legislative chamber, and on Friday Gov. Matt Bevin of Kentucky signed one into law. Hours later, a federal judge temporarily blocked the Kentucky law, which was to have taken effect immediately. (3/20)

Proponents of House Bill 481 contend that life begins once an embryo’s heartbeat can be detected — at about six weeks, when it is about the size of one’s fingernail. And before most women even realize they’re pregnant. Except there is no embryo or fetus in the “heartbeat” bill. (Jim Galloway, 3/19)

The e-cigarette craze among teenagers has become an epidemic. We agree with those who believe that e-cigarettes may offer a lower-risk alternative for adult smokers who still want access to nicotine. But the continued availability of this opportunity to adults is being endangered by the e-cigarette industry’s slowness to address the dangers its products pose to teens. The 2018 National Youth Tobacco Survey showed a nearly 80 percent increase in current e-cigarette use (meaning in the previous 30 days) by high-school-age teens over the previous year. The survey also showed a nearly 50 percent increase for middle-school-age children over the same period. The combined total reflects a surge of 1.5 million young e-cigarette users, to 3.6 million. Perhaps most disturbing, the survey revealed an almost 40 percent increase in teens using e-cigarettes on 20 or more of the past 30 days. (HHS Secretary Alex Azar and FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb, 3/20)

President Trump’s proposal to cut $1.4 trillion from Medicaid over 10 years not only is unethical in its heartless attack on the nation’s poorest and most vulnerable — it’s also bad policy that will cost taxpayers far more than it saves in the long run. The proposal, unveiled in Trump’s 2020 budget, was a shocker that nonetheless surprised no one. As Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-Calif.) put it during a congressional hearing on March 12, this administration “has taken a hatchet to every part of our health care system.” (Jacob Reider, 3/20)

After a gunman carried out a horrifying attack on two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, that killed 50 people, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced that she had ordered an inquiry to determine whether government agencies could have prevented the tragedy. “The purpose of this inquiry,” she said, “is to look at what all relevant agencies knew — or could or should have known — about the individual and his activities, including his access to weapons.” How did this happen? What could have been done differently? The questions are simple and obvious. They are nonetheless still striking for the contrast they show between how New Zealand and the United States respond to mass shootings. (3/20)

America’s opioid crisis is a terrible tragedy in itself. Increasingly, though, the evidence suggests that it’s behind another malaise: the growing ranks of prime-aged males dropping out of the labor force. The epidemic of opioid and opiate drug abuse contrasts sharply with a broader improvement in Americans’ health. Violent crime, domestic violence and teen pregnancy are all way down. Cancer survival rates are up, and HIV is on the way out. Air and water pollution have decreased. (Noah Smith, 3/19)

Imagine a scenario in which a 57-year-old man with an individual health-insurance policy is diagnosed with cancer. As soon as the diagnosis is made, the incentives of the man and those of his health insurer diverge. He wants the best treatment immediately, while the insurer seeks to meet its obligations in the most financially prudent way possible. That could mean paying for less-expensive treatments first before gradually moving up a ladder of remedies if they fail. If the patient switches to a different insurance plan after being cured, his first insurer will have in effect subsidized a competitor. Moreover, the insurer’s obligations end with his death. (Dana P. Goldman and Darius Lakdawalla, 3/20)

In 2015, more than 3.6 million cataract procedures were performed in the United States. For many Americans — including me — the procedure is covered by insurance. That’s a lot, but the American Academy of Ophthalmology estimates that more than 24.4 million Americans have cataracts, including half of all those over 70 years old. Surely such surgery should not be limited to people of privilege. I’ll leave it to someone to the right of me to explain why the ability to see should not be the right of every citizen. (Jennifer Finney Boylan, 3/20)

Childbirth and infectious diseases were once the leading causes of death among women around the globe. That’s changed over the last three decades. Today, noncommunicable diseases (NCDs), once considered diseases of affluence, are, along with injuries, the leading causes of death and disability among women in developing and developed countries alike. Noncommunicable diseases affect women and children across the life-course: They are a critical issue for child and adolescent health, a threat to maternal and reproductive health, and a major driver of ill health for older women. (Robyn Norton and Katie Dain, 3/21)

The same economic challenges that affect Trenton’s fiscal health impact the physical health of its residents. Low income often goes hand in hand with food insecurity and reliance on less healthful foods. When unemployment is high, so are rates of stress and accompanying poorer mental and physical health outcomes. Poverty often leaves families unable to afford safe housing, resulting in health-degrading exposures to lead and mold. (David Eichenthal and Marc Gourevitch, 3/20)

Should it be a privilege for menstruating women to have access to tampons and pads? According to the Maine’s Republican state representative, Richard Pickett of Dixfield, incarcerated women should not have comprehensive access to menstrual hygiene products for free. Dixfield recently voted against a bill allowing state jails and prisons to provide free, unrestricted comprehensive access of tampons, pads and menstrual cups to incarcerated women because, according to a reporter who tweeted his response, “Quite frankly, and I don't mean this in any disrespect, the jail system and the correctional system was never meant to be a country club.” (Sameena Rahman, 3/20)