How Zika Became a Partisan Issue

Even pregnant women have become fodder for partisan Washington funding fights.

With nearly 300 pregnant women in the United States already infected with the Zika virus and the summer mosquito season looming after a soggy spring, Congress has yet to approve the Obama administration’s 3-month-old, $1.9 billion request for emergency funding.

The bipartisan response to previous public health crises, such as the 2014 Ebola outbreak and the H1N1 swine flu pandemic in 2009, is not evident in the months-long congressional debates about Zika, despite its huge human costs. The virus in pregnant women has been closely linked to severe brain abnormalities in fetuses.