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With Alice Miranda Ollstein and Megan R. Wilson

‘A MULTIHEADED HYDRA BEAST’ — Washington state officials announced Tuesday that they have made the country’s first-ever mass purchase of abortion pills in case a Texas court cuts off access to the drug nationwide, Alice writes.

Democratic Gov. Jay Inslee told reporters that the state’s correctional system purchased 30,000 doses of mifepristone and the University of Washington purchased an additional 10,000. Based on current levels of demand from Washington residents and those traveling to the state for abortions, Inslee expects the supply to last four years.

“Women in Washington are under attack from a multiheaded Hydra beast who is coming after their rights,” Inslee said. “We have to be creative because there are tentacles coming at us from every direction.”

Lawmakers still need to pass a bill to authorize the state to distribute the purchased pills to health care providers, which Democrats in the state legislature have pledged to do. The FDA declined to comment on Washington’s action.

Washington also leads a multistate lawsuit challenging the remaining federal restrictions on abortion pills. State officials argued Tuesday that conservatives’ manifold efforts to cut off abortion access — including a new law in neighboring Idaho criminalizing the transportation of a minor across state lines for an abortion — merits a range of tactics in response.

“We need to do what we can, as leaders of our state, to make sure that the people of our state have the full range of … health care that they need and that they want and that they deserve,” said the state’s Attorney General Bob Ferguson.

WELCOME TO WEDNESDAY PULSE — Gen Z has given up on milk, and the dairy industry is fighting back. But can milk really be a sports drink? We have our doubts. Send news and tips to [email protected] and [email protected].

TODAY ON OUR PULSE CHECK PODCAST, host Ben Leonard talks with Krista, who reports on a National Institutes of Health study on the effects of long Covid and what the researchers say the federal government should do to help those with the lingering condition.

A LIBERAL WIN IN WISCONSIN — Liberals flipped the ideological makeup of Wisconsin’s Supreme Court on Tuesday, making the new 4-3 majority more likely to strike down a controversial 19th-century abortion ban in the state, POLITICO’s Zach Montellaro reports.

In the most expensive state judicial race in American history, Janet Protasiewicz, a liberal judge from Milwaukee County, defeated conservative former state Supreme Court Justice Dan Kelly.

Why it matters: Her win will have sweeping effects on the state, including on access to abortion. The state has an 1840s law on the books that bans abortion in nearly all instances. State Attorney General Josh Kaul, a Democrat, has brought a lawsuit challenging that law in state court that is widely expected to land in front of the state Supreme Court. In the interim, abortion providers have stopped performing the procedure in the state.

FIRST IN PULSE: CALLING ON WEINGARTEN — The House subcommittee investigating the federal response to the pandemic wants Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, to explain what role — if any — the union had in shaping CDC guidance on school reopenings during the pandemic.

In a letter shared first with Pulse, Brad Wenstrup (R-Ohio), the chairman of the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic, asks Weingarten to testify in an April 26 hearing that will “examine the consequences of pandemic-era school closures and the involvement of yourself and the American Federation of Teachers in those closures.”

The request, which the subcommittee said it sent Tuesday evening, follows a March 28 letter from Wenstrup to Weingarten, which informed the head of the powerful teachers union that the committee is looking into “potential political interference” in the CDC’s guidance on reopening schools in February 2021.

That letter alleges the union was granted “uncommon” access to edit the guidance before its release, citing media reports at the time, which it said ultimately resulted in the CDC advising that schools should remain closed in much of the U.S. Wenstrup requested that Weingarten supply documents, communications and a list of meetings between the AFT and the CDC, HHS and the Executive Office of the President regarding the guidance, among other items.

The committee also issued letters requesting documentation about the guidance to the CDC and 14 other nongovernmental groups.

“I look forward to hearing Ms. Weingarten’s testimony and learning the truth about the role AFT played in promoting unscientific school closures that harmed the academic, mental, physical, and social development of our youth,” Wenstrup said in a statement to Pulse.

Weingarten said she had yet to receive the invitation on Tuesday night. “There seems to be a pattern emerging. This is the third time I’ve received notice to testify from Republicans in Congress through the press — but if we receive an invitation, we will review it and I’d welcome the opportunity to testify and cooperate with the committee’s work,” she said in a statement.

MINDFUL UNWINDING — HHS’ Office for Civil Rights sent a letter to states today reminding them of their obligations under federal civil rights laws as they start unwinding the continuous coverage of Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program.

As states start sending information about the process to residents, OCR says they are required “to take reasonable steps to provide meaningful language access for individuals with limited English proficiency (LEP) and ensure effective communication with individuals with disabilities.”

What’s at stake: Nearly 92 million people were enrolled in Medicaid and CHIP as of November 2022. With some 68 million U.S. residents speaking a language other than English at home, and as many as 1 in 4 adults with a disability, those communities are at risk of missing crucial information during the historic shift in Americans’ health coverage that is now underway.

FEDS PROBE ‘WIDESPREAD’ DATA LEAK CLAIMS — HHS is investigating multiple health care providers’ websites for allegedly leaking users’ private data, an issue an agency official called “problematic” and “widespread,” POLITICO’s Alfred Ng reports.

Melanie Fontes Rainer, the director of HHS’ OCR, said Tuesday that the agency is actively investigating claims that the websites used embedded trackers that sent data to third parties.

Under HIPAA, covered entities such as insurance companies and health care providers must have contracts with third parties that ensure any protected health information remains private.

But Rainer said many websites don’t do this, potentially leaking sensitive health information to advertisers and data brokers. Her comments came during the International Association of Privacy Professionals’ summit in Washington on Tuesday.

LAST STRIKE FOR HEAD START VAX MANDATE? A federal judge struck down a Biden administration vaccine requirement for the nation’s Head Start facilities — likely dealing a final blow to a mandate that courts have already blocked in half the country, POLITICO’s Juan Perez Jr. reports.

How we got here: In November 2021, an interim final rule from the Department of HHS’ Administration for Children and Families ordered Head Start patrons who were 2 years and older to wear masks, with some exceptions. The childcare program’s staff and contractors were also ordered to quickly get vaccinated against Covid-19 — or undergo regular tests for the virus.

Conservative state officials sued to block the rule. By the fall of 2022, federal court rulings had blocked the rule from being enforced in roughly two dozen states.

The agency issued a final rule in January that removed the universal masking requirement but kept the vaccine mandate in effect and under review.

FLORIDA BAN ON TRANSGENDER CARE ADVANCES — The Florida Senate signed off on a proposed ban on surgeries and prescription treatments for children diagnosed with gender dysphoria, POLITICO’s Arek Sarkissian reports.

The bill, sponsored by Republican state Sen. Clay Yarborough, seeks to prohibit anyone under 18 from undergoing the surgeries or prescription-based hormone therapies associated with gender-affirming care. It also bans universities, local governments, the health insurance plans for state workers and providers contracted with the state’s Medicaid Managed Care program from using public dollars to cover the treatments.

The measure is now headed to the state House.

FIRST IN PULSE — America’s Health Insurance Plans, the insurance industry’s main trade association, has brought on two executives crucial to ensuring policy wins in a challenging year, Megan reports. Sohini Gupta, who comes from Global Medical Response, is executive vice president of government affairs and innovations, helming AHIP’s advocacy on the state and federal levels. Former Meta exec Robert Traynham is executive vice president for public affairs and strategic initiatives.

Aaron Bernstein, who currently heads the Center for Climate, Health, and the Global Environment at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, next month will become new director of the CDC’s National Center for Environmental Health and Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry.

The Washington Post reports on a new WHO finding that infertility impacts 1 in 6 people around the world.

Biohackers looking to live longer have latched onto a decades-old diabetes drug, but does it work? The Wall Street Journal reports.

Paul Krugman writes about the correlation between states’ politics and life expectancies in the U.S. for The New York Times.