The Morning Meeting with Al Tompkins is a daily Poynter briefing of story ideas worth considering and other timely context for journalists, written by senior faculty Al Tompkins.
Since the Supreme Court’s June 24 decision that overturned the Roe v. Wade ruling legalizing abortions, some states have seen an increase in abortions while others saw dramatic declines. But overall, a new study says, abortions nationwide dropped 6% since the ruling.
Before you overreact to this data, keep in mind it is a first take of a short-term public reaction, and the report was produced by, #WeCount, which takes the position of “We believe in just and equitable abortion and contraception informed by science.” The group’s website says, “The SFP Research Fund provides support for abortion and contraception research.” You can see their major donors list here. With that understood, the data could easily be used by all sides of the issue as confirmation that what they predicted would come to pass. The researchers posted:
States with the largest percent increases in abortions between April and August include North Carolina (37%), Kansas (36%), Colorado (33%), and Illinois (28%). By comparison, California experienced a relatively small percent increase between April and August (1%), and already provides the greatest number of abortions of any state in the US, between 17,000 and 18,000 abortions per month.
Since the Dobbs decision, in states with bans or severe restrictions, there were 7,870 fewer abortions in July and 8,040 fewer in August, for a cumulative total of 15,910 fewer people who had abortions in those states
This change represents a decrease of 95% in the number of abortions, comparing April and August 2022 in states where abortion was banned or severely restricted.
Since the Dobbs decision, in states with restricted access, there were 2,160 fewer abortions in July and 4,460 fewer in August, for a cumulative total of 6,620 fewer people who had abortions in those states.
This represents a decrease of 32% in the number of abortions, comparing April and August 2022 in states where abortion was restricted.
The study provides some trends from some of the now most restrictive states.
- In Texas, which already had a 6-week ban on abortion in place, we observed 2,770 abortions provided in April. A total abortion ban with only a few exceptions went into effect after the Dobbs decision, and by August the monthly estimated number of abortions provided by a clinician declined to approximately 10.
- In Oklahoma, we observed 510 abortions provided in April. The state enacted a total abortion ban in May before the Dobbs decision. The monthly number of abortions in that state declined to less than 10 in June.
(Society of Family Planning We Count Report)
And the study found that as courts imposed, then lifted, stays on new laws, abortions in those states quickly rose then fell.
In some states, abortion bans, including both total abortion bans and those limiting abortion to 6-weeks gestation, were first imposed and then lifted in response to court challenges, including Arizona, Georgia, Ohio, Tennessee, South Carolina, and West Virginia, contributing to significant volatility in provided abortion over the period. For example, in Arizona, we observed 1,250 abortions in April, which increased 9% in May; in July, the number of abortions provided by a clinician declined by 80% only to increase again in August by 158%.
The New York Times summarizes the study this way:
In states where abortion remained legal, the number of abortions increased by roughly 12,000, or 11 percent. That suggests that around half of women who were unable to get abortions in states with bans traveled to another state to get one.
But even with those increases, thousands of abortions appear to have been prevented by the new state laws.
The data in this study started with the Abortion Facility Database from Advancing New Standards in Reproductive Health at University of California, San Francisco. The researchers said they got data from 100% of abortion providers in 29 states which account for 79 percent of the nation’s abortion providers, which were responsible for 82 percent of all abortions before the court’s Dobbs decision. The report also relied on estimates based on state data where they did not have direct reporting. That is one reason I added the forewarning to this piece that this is the first look at a tumultuous time of change. It may take a year or two to clearly see the longer-term trends that result from the Supreme Court’s ruling and the reactions from states and healthcare providers.
Is this the end of the Great Resignation? Hiring binge slows
Today’s job openings data gives us an updated look at how eagerly businesses are hiring.
When the pandemic hit and there were lots of people scrambling for fewer job openings, there were about five people looking for work for every open job. Now there are fewer workers to fill the open jobs. This is the Labor Department’s trend chart:
(U.S. Department of Labor)
The open jobs report is one way to measure the job market, and another is to look at how many jobs are getting posted on the big online job search websites.
The Hiring Lab says postings on the job search website Indeed are still higher as they once were but in some sectors, the demand for new employees is cooling, especially in tech sectors:
Job postings on Indeed were 48.8% above their pre-pandemic baseline as of October 21, signaling vigorous hiring intentions. New job postings, those that have been on Indeed for seven days or less, also reflect a healthy appetite for new hires, coming in at 55% above their Feb 1, 2020 level.
(Indeed)
The latest Labor Department data shows that while compensation is rising, it is not keeping up with inflation.
Why the global liquid helium shortage is serious
It may not rank in your top 20 things to worry about, but a global helium shortage threatens things you might not expect. Some Thanksgiving parades that use helium for their big balloon are grounded this year. MassLive says Springfield, Massachusetts, for example, won’t be lifting off its Thanksgiving Day parade balloons.
Officials with the Spirit of Springfield, the annual sponsor of the day-after-Thanksgiving parade, said with helium in short supply this year and prices shooting up to the sky, plans for the parade this year will simply not go forward.
CTV in Canada lists some of the other ways helium is used:
Scientists use liquid helium to pressurize and stiffen the structure of rockets before takeoff. Because it is very unreactive and provides an inert protective atmosphere, it is ideal for making fiber optics and semiconductors and is also used for arc welding.
Besides being used in high-speed internet, cable TV, computer hard drives, microscopes, airbags in cars, mobile phones, computers, and tablet chips, helium even acts as a coolant for nuclear reactors.
But the most common use of helium is in hospital magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanners. In its liquid form, helium can cool down superconducting magnets, which generate images of the human body, to a temperature below minus 269 degrees Celsius.
An MRI can’t function without some 2,000 liters of ultra-cold liquid helium keeping its magnets cool enough to work. But helium — a nonrenewable element found deep within the Earth’s crust — is running low, leaving hospitals wondering how to plan for a future with a much scarcer supply.
“Helium has become a big concern,” said Mahadevappa Mahesh, professor of radiology at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine Baltimore. “Especially now with the geopolitical situation.”
Helium has been a volatile commodity for years. This is especially true in the U.S., where a Texas-based federal helium reserve is dwindling as the government tries transferring ownership to private markets.
CTV says:
Hospitals have been the largest end users of helium, making up to 32% of the global market share in 2021, followed by 18% used for lifting balloons, according to the data from J.R. Campbell & Associates.
Helium is used in weather balloons, which are typically released twice a day, every day of the year, from 900 locations worldwide including those from 100 launch sites across the U.S. and Canada.
Supplies are so tight that four of the five biggest U.S. helium producers are rationing supplies. And the price that hospitals pay for it has risen by 30% and is still going up.
Is Twitter heading toward ‘for-pay?’
The Verge reports, “Elon Musk has given employees their first ultimatum: Meet his deadline to introduce paid verification on Twitter or pack up and leave. The directive is to change Twitter Blue, the company’s optional, $4.99 a month subscription that unlocks additional features, into a more expensive subscription that also verifies users.”
The snicker of the day goes to a couple of guys whose photos showed up in weekend news coverage. They were carrying boxes as though they had just lost their jobs. I will wait while you click on the story to read the name on one of their name badges. (Think middle-school jokes using semi-obscene-sounding names.)
Today is Musk’s fifth day on the job.
