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Axios PM

By Mike Allen · Feb 21, 2024

Good afternoon. Today's newsletter, edited by Sam Baker, is 510 words, a 2-min. read. Thanks to Sheryl Miller for copy editing.

1 big thing: Fertility treatments frozen

Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios

Doctors and patients are already rethinking fertility treatments after the Alabama Supreme Court ruled last week that frozen embryos should receive legal protections as "unborn life."  Driving the news: The University of Alabama at Birmingham paused in vitro fertilization treatments, citing "the potential that our patients and our physicians could be prosecuted criminally or face punitive damages for following the standard of care," AL.com reports. And medical professionals throughout the state are questioning whether they'll need to overhaul their approach to IVF, most likely in ways that could make it riskier, more expensive and more painful for women trying to conceive. Catch up quick: Alabama's Supreme Court ruled Friday that frozen embryos are legally children, making it a crime to destroy those embryos. 🩺 How it works: Doctors performing IVF typically try to retrieve as many eggs as possible, fertilize them and then transfer a fertilized egg back into the patient.  The rest are kept frozen. It often takes more than one transfer to get pregnant, and the frozen embryos are also there if the patient decides to have more children later. "Under the current Alabama ruling, patients nor physicians nor IVF labs are going to be willing to have frozen embryos," Mamie McLean, a physician at one of Alabama's largest fertility clinics, told The Washington Post. 🔮 What we're watching: Other conservative states are likely to follow Alabama's lead, which could create broad regional barriers to fertility treatment.

2. 🪧 Strike surge

Data: BLS; Note: Data includes strikes and lockouts involving at least 1,000 workers; Chart: Axios Visuals The number of labor strikes in the U.S. in 2023 was as high as it's been in more than a decade, Axios Markets co-author Emily Peck reports from new government data.  ⚡️ Why it matters: The strong labor market of the past few years emboldened workers and union organizers to take a harder line, pushing more folks to the picket line. Strikes took place across a range of industries, but the vast majority happened in the service sector — think education and health care, two industries suffering from work shortages and post-pandemic burnout.

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Wind or oil and gas? One top energy investor is doing both

Across the U.S., bp supports more than 275,000 jobs to keep our energy flowing. That includes teams working to update turbine blades at one of our Indiana wind farms and produce more secure energy in the Gulf of Mexico. See how else bp is investing in America.

3. Catch me up

Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 MAX 9. Photo: NTSB via Getty Images 🛬 Boeing has replaced the head of its troubled 737 MAX program. Go deeper. 🗳️ Former CNN anchor John Avlon is running for Congress in New York's 1st District, adding to a crowded field of Democrats vying to unseat a first-term Republican. Go deeper. 🏗️ The Biden administration plans to spend billions on domestically manufactured cargo cranes, saying the use of Chinese-made cranes at key ports poses a national security risk, The Wall Street Journal reports.

4. 👑 Beyoncé tops country music charts

Beyoncé at the Grammys earlier this month. Photo: Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for The Recording Academy Beyoncé is the first Black woman to top Billboard's Hot Country Songs chart, reaching No. 1 for her single "Texas Hold 'Em," Axios' April Rubin writes. 🏆 She is also the only woman to have topped both the Hot Country Songs and Hot R&B/Hip Hop Songs lists, per Billboard. Flashback: Beyoncé broke the record for the most-awarded Grammy artist of all time with the award for her "Renaissance" album, and her tourboosted cities' economies. Her "Renaissance" era also featured a concert film that hit theaters.

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Developing more lower carbon energy and keeping oil & gas flowing

bp’s U.S. workforce — our largest in the world — is in action from coast to coast, like building grid-scale solar in Ohio and producing more energy with fewer operational emissions in the Permian Basin. It’s our “and, not or” approach at work. See how else bp is investing in America.