Bioethics Public Policy Report: August 18, 2026
State by State
Planned Parenthood of Michigan is closing three of its locations statewide due to a loss of $4.2 million in reimbursements from federal funding. It has noted that it would be seeking state funding to help make up for the loss. For further information, click here.
Texas Children’s Hospital and the State of Texas, in coordination with the U.S. Department of Justice, have reached a settlement over its fraudulent billing of Texas Medicaid for “gender transition” procedures, compelling Texas Children’s Hospital to pay $10 million in fines and to open the nation’s first “de-transition” clinic. For further information, click here.
Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey signed into law a pro-abortion bill that will allow abortion at any point during pregnancy until the birth of the child. For further information, click here.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced that the state has taken action to ensure that an unborn child with a heart defect will receive treatment upon birth. The unborn child is being carried by a surrogate mother for a California couple who have refused to consent to a life-saving surgery for the child. For further information, click here and here.
Federal Courts
A stipulated judgment has been reached in a federal lawsuit (Catholic Charities v. Whitmer) with Michigan over the state’s “conversion therapy” ban, allowing Catholic counselors to render talk therapy to children who struggle with their biological sex. With the court order, Michigan is permanently barred from penalizing “conversion therapy” if it only involves talking to the patient. This settlement follows the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in a nearly identical case, Chiles v. Salazar, for which the NCBC filed an amicus brief. To read our amicus brief, click here. For further information, click here.
New York has agreed not to enforce its Medical Aid in Dying law against Carmelite sisters engaged in hospice care as a federal court considers their argument for a preliminary injunction to bar enforcement of the law. For further information, click here.
A federal district court in Michigan issued an order that revived parents’ challenge against a public school district’s policy which gives it discretion to conceal a child’s struggles with his or her biological sex from his or her parents, citing the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent decision in Mirabelli v. Bonta. For further information, click here.
Bishop Thomas John Paprocki of the Diocese of Springfield in Illinois has filed suit against the State of Illinois, challenging its “End of Life Options” Act, asking the federal district court to prevent enforcement of the law before it takes effect in September. The “End of Life Options” Act would compel religiously affiliated hospitals and nursing homes, as well as medical professionals who work for them, to speak about the “benefits” of physician-assisted suicide. For further information, click here.
National
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has ended federal Medicaid and CHIP funding for sex-rejecting procedures for children and youth. The NCBC and colleague agencies provided public comment in support of this change in policy. To read our public comment, click here. For further information, click here.
The Institute for Family Studies compiled data indicating that the divorce rate is declining from the previously established 50% rate. For further information, click here.
Of Note
Pope Leo XIV has made statements concerning the importance of communicating for the purposes of human encounter rather than algorithm appeal, as well as the importance of prayer in the family. For further information, click here and here.
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