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A three-judge panel on Thursday ruled that Tennessee doctors who provide emergency abortions to protect the life of the mother cannot have their medical licenses revoked or face other disciplinary actions while a lawsuit challenging the state’s sweeping abortion ban continues. The ruling also outlined specific pregnancy-related conditions that would now qualify as “medical necessity exceptions” under the ban, which currently does not include exceptions for fetal anomalies or for victims of rape or incest. (Kruesi, 10/17)

A federal judge ordered Gov. Ron DeSantis’ state Health Department to stop threatening television stations with criminal prosecution if they kept running ads in favor of an abortion amendment on the ballot next month. In a sharply worded ruling on Thursday, U.S. District Judge Mark Walker rebuked the DeSantis administration for trying to quash what he called constitutionally protected political speech. “To keep it simple for the State of Florida: it’s the First Amendment, stupid,” Walker wrote, granting a request for a temporary restraining order. A hearing for a preliminary injunction is scheduled for later this month. (Mower, 10/17)

Progressives in Arizona are worried that the state’s abortion-rights ballot measure isn’t giving Democratic candidates the boost they desperately need in the final stretch of the 2024 election. Voters in the battleground suburbs of Phoenix and Tucson are increasingly telling canvassers and pollsters that they plan to vote to overturn the state’s 15-week abortion ban but also support former President Donald Trump, Senate candidate Kari Lake and other Republicans who have a history of opposing abortion rights. (Ollstein, 10/17)

In addition to seeing patients cross borders to undergo the procedure, Dr. Taylor Walker is witnessing another trend: future doctors avoid doing their residency in states with abortion restrictions. (Zaragovia, 10/17)

Just two months before the Supreme Court would overturn Roe v. Wade, eliminating the federal right to an abortion, Mike Bonanza launched Elevated Access. The nonprofit dedicated to helping patients receive reproductive health care would soon find its services more crucial than ever. (Adamczeski, 10/17)

���ϳԹ��� News: California Continues Progressive Policies, With Restraint, In Divisive Election Year

This year, Gov. Gavin Newsom affirmed abortion access, calling California “a proud reproductive freedom state” and criticizing Republicans across the country for trying to take away families’ rights. He signed legislation mandating that insurance companies cover in vitro fertilization. He supported restricting students’ cellphone use in schools and signed a nation-leading ban on food dye in school snacks and drinks. And he endorsed a bill allowing businesses to operate Amsterdam-style cannabis cafés. (Thompson, 10/18)

���ϳԹ��� News' 'What The Health?' Podcast: LIVE From KFF: Health Care And The 2024 Election

The Affordable Care Act has not been a major issue in the 2024 campaign, but abortion and reproductive rights have been front and center. Those are just two of the dozens of health issues that could be profoundly affected by who is elected president and which party controls Congress in 2025. (10/17)

Former President Donald Trump said he would consider religious exemptions for his campaign pledge to cover the costs of in vitro fertilization, a concession to some of his conservative Christian supporters who oppose the fertility procedure. “Well, you know, I haven’t been asked that, but it sounds to me like a pretty good idea, frankly,” the Republican nominee said in an interview with Catholic news channel EWTN Thursday. (Lai, 10/18)

A new study adds to a growing set of evidence that women who use hormonal birth control have higher rates of breast cancer, but experts have stressed that the overall risk remains low. (McPhillips, 10/17)

How a sperm and an egg fuse together has long been a mystery. New research by scientists in Austria provides tantalizing clues, showing fertilization works like a lock and key across the animal kingdom, from fish to people. “We discovered this mechanism that’s really fundamental across all vertebrates as far as we can tell,” said co-author Andrea Pauli at the Research Institute of Molecular Pathology in Vienna. The team found that three proteins on the sperm join to form a sort of key that unlocks the egg, allowing the sperm to attach. Their findings, drawn from studies in zebrafish, mice, and human cells, show how this process has persisted over millions of years of evolution. Results were published Thursday in the journal Cell. (Ungar, 10/17)