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The number of abortions provided by clinicians in the United States has declined this year as the effects of new restrictions bear out and it becomes more common to manage an abortion outside the formal health care system, a new report suggests. (McPhillips, 9/30)

Louisiana is pursuing a criminal case against another out-of-state doctor accused of mailing abortion pills to a patient in the state, court documents filed this month revealed. A warrant for the arrest of a California doctor is a rare charge of violating one of the state abortion bans that has taken effect since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022 and allowed enforcement. (Cline and Mulvihill, 9/30)

A Northern California woman was twice denied an emergency abortion and sent home after Dignity Health doctors determined her pregnancy wasn’t viable but could not provide the procedure due to Dignity’s religious restrictions, according to a lawsuit filed Friday in San Francisco County Superior Court. In one instance, she developed life-threatening sepsis, the suit said. Rachel Harrison, 30, of Carmichael (Sacramento County), alleges she lost both pregnancies at 17 weeks’ gestation after her water broke and her amniotic fluid was lost. (Gafni, 9/29)

College student Maya Roman has the handoff down to a science: a text message, a walk to a designated site, and a paper bag delivered with condoms and Plan B emergency contraception. At DePaul University, it’s the only way students can get a sliver of sexual health support, she said. DePaul, a Catholic school in Chicago, prohibits distribution of any kind of birth control on its campus. To get around that, a student group runs a covert contraceptive delivery network called “the womb service.” (Fernando, 9/30)

Pediatricians and advocates urged the Nevada Interscholastic Activities Association (NIAA) to remove a new requirement on sports physical evaluations that physicians identify a student’s birth sex and recommend whether they should play boys’ or girls’ sports, calling it “medically inappropriate.” The request came in the form of a letter signed by 18 doctors and medical professionals sent via email last week to Executive Director Timothy Jackson, who leads the association that governs high school sports in Nevada. (Mueller and Hernandez, 9/29)

California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a first-in-the-nation law on Monday that will force major AI companies to reveal their safety protocols — marking the end of a lobbying battle with big tech companies like ChatGPT maker OpenAI and Meta and setting the groundwork for a potential national standard. (DeFeliciantonio, 9/29)

Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.), a member of the Senate health committee, heard from a variety of providers Monday about their frustrations with the healthcare system. "We are exhausted, frustrated, and sad, and trying to claw our way back up there," said Ashley Zelenak, MD, a pediatric emergency physician at Bon Secours St. Mary's Hospital in Richmond, Virginia. "We took such a hit during COVID and now to be hit [again] as a pediatrician, it's hard." (Frieden, 9/29)

It can’t be good news for anyone encouraged by tiny home projects or other recent developments to assist the homeless. Stanislaus County has sent a six-month notice to end an agreement with The Salvation Army for operation of the low-barrier homeless shelter on D Street in Modesto. Closing the facility would remove 182 shelter beds for people who don’t have a home. (Carlson, 9/28)

On a recent Saturday near Seattle, Cheryl Ewaldsen pulled three golden loaves of wheat bread out of her kitchen oven. The fragrant, oat-topped bread was destined not for her table, but for a local food bank, to be distributed to families increasingly struggling with hunger and the high cost of groceries. ... Ewaldsen is a volunteer with Community Loaves, a Seattle-area nonprofit that started pairing home bakers with food pantries during the COVID-19 pandemic — and hasn’t stopped. (Aleccia, 9/29)