May 28, 2026 – The Week in Health Care News
Your digest on the happenings in health care this week | May 28, 2026
Reproductive Rights/Attacks on Medication Abortion
Des Moines Register: Gov. Kim Reynolds signs Iowa law restricting mail-order abortion pills.
In a new survey of abortion providers, the National Abortion Federation reports rising anti-abortion violence and threats. The report comes just weeks after the Trump administration released a 900-page report downplaying anti-abortion violence, painting extremists as peaceful protesters targeted for their religious views.
Of the 300 clinics that responded to NAF’s survey, 200 reported violence or harassment—including death threats, break-ins or attempted break-ins, and stalking.
Also from AED: North Carolina Bill Would Legalize Killing Abortion Providers and Advocates—Seriously
NPR: Abortion pills “just in case”? Planned Parenthood will offer them in two states:
The initiative…launched Thursday and is called "Just In Case Abortion Pills." It means people can have the abortion pills mifepristone and misoprostol on their shelf to be used in the future if they want to end an early pregnancy.
A new Vanderbilt poll shows that a shocking 24% of Tennesseans would support charging women who get abortions with homicide which is punishable by life in prison or the death penalty.
PROPUBLICA: She Faced a Life-Threatening Miscarriage. Under Arkansas’ Abortion Ban, Even Calls to the Governor’s Office Didn’t Help. (Warning: this article describes the horrific medical advice and “treatment” Emily Waldorf was given.)
In related news from the AMA, abortion bans are negatively impacting miscarriage medical care.
Anti-abortion forces are have taken to issuing threats to the Trump administration, pushing them to outlaw abortion medications:
“Our patience has run out,” Kristi Hamrick, who leads federal policy with Students for Life of America told POLITICO. “The pro-life movement, like many other parts of the [Republican] coalition, made an investment in Donald Trump. We want a return on that investment.”
Health Care Affordability
A new survey by KFF estimates that as many as 5 million people will drop their Obamacare health insurance this year. RFK Jr. says it’s because they got rid of waste, fraud, and abuse, not the fact that premiums skyrocketed after Republicans failed to renew the enhanced subsidies.
“The veto is baffling,” said AARP Virginia State Director Jim Dau in a statement. He noted that recent polling found that 82% of Virginia voters supported the legislation. “By signing the Affordable Medicine Act, she had a clear opportunity to deliver similar relief to Virginians outside Medicare and to hold Big Pharma accountable.”
Trump Administration News
Amid the hantavirus and Ebola outbreaks, the acting director of the U.S. NIH’s infectious disease institute has quit. (Conspiracy theorists are having a field day with the two outbreaks.) The Ebola outbreak is now the third largest in history, with at least 224 suspected deaths and 913 suspected cases reported.
The New York Times: Trump Administration to Send Americans Exposed to Ebola to Kenya:
The approach is a stark contrast to the way previous administrations responded to outbreaks, during which health care workers and other U.S. citizens exposed to the virus were brought home to be treated at specialized medical units. The administration this month flew an American doctor who developed symptoms to a hospital in Germany, and transported six other Americans for monitoring in Germany and the Czech Republic.
RELATED from The Washington Post: White House resisted letting doctor with Ebola return to U.S.
RELATED from Bloomberg News: US Ebola Spending Plunged 99% in Five Years Since Last Outbreak
At a cabinet meeting on Wednesday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said, “The number one priority of our foreign policy is to protect the American people. We cannot and will not allow any cases of Ebola into the United States.”
Following his yearslong effort to remove vaccine makers’ federal liability protections, RFK Jr. is now offering immunity for developing a vaccine for the Andes hantavirus.
In other Trump administration hypocrisy news:
Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, acting director of the [CDC], drew notice during the Covid-19 pandemic for suggesting that the coronavirus should be allowed to spread freely among healthy people, and for arguing that mandatory quarantines and lockdowns were harmful to society.
Last week, however, he issued quarantine orders that cited public health laws for two passengers who wanted to leave the Nebraska [hantavirus quarantine] facility and isolate in their home states.
We may have an answer as to why the Trump administration approved fruit-flavored vapes as “an effort to tamp down on underage use” of e-cigarettes. Via The New York Times: A $5 Million Donation From Big Tobacco Preceded F.D.A. Vape Decision. This may also explain why FDA staff were blindsided by the approvals.
In another apparent grift, Trump seems to be benefiting from insider trading. KFF Health News reports that he recently bought as much as $680,000 in stock of Eli Lilly, the maker of the obesity drugs that his administration is benefiting with its policies. It doesn’t stop there: Barron’s reports that Trump’s portfolio managers traded UnitedHealth ahead of favorable Medicare policy changes.
Trump had a 3-hour ‘routine annual’ medical exam this week, his third doctor’s visit in the past 13 months and just 7 months after his last one. Apparently, “Everything checked out PERFECTLY.”
Dr. Nicole Saphier, Trump’s latest pick for Surgeon General – not to be confused with his new acting Surgeon General, that’s Dr. Stephanie Haridopolos – should fit in perfectly with all the other grifters in the administration. She exploits a tax break intended for farmers to lower her property taxes despite saying, “The reality is, I’m not a real farmer. I just kind of pretend like I am.”
STAT: NIH behind in filling top roles, with 15 of 27 institutes led by acting directors
RELATED from NATURE: NIH staffing shortage could slash number of new grants issued this year
Without explanation, RFK Jr. summarily fired the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force’s two leaders last week. The move appears designed to give him more control over the members of the group that decides which medical services are preventive and must be covered fully by insurers under the ACA.
NBC News reports that no child deaths have been definitively linked to COVID-19 vaccines, according to a report from the FDA that was quietly made public last week, contradicting FDA vaccine chief Vinay Prasad.