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A federal judge followed through on his promise Wednesday and blocked abortion-restricting rules in Missouri, saying he's bound by a U.S. Supreme Court ruling and that the state is denying abortion rights "on a daily basis, in irreparable fashion. "Missouri's attorney general swiftly pledged an appeal, calling the ruling "wrong." (Suhr, 4/19)

“The abortion rights of Missouri women, guaranteed by constitutional rulings, are being denied on a daily basis, in irreparable fashion,” Sachs wrote of Missouri’s abortion restrictions. “The public interest clearly favors prompt relief.” In Hellerstedt, the Supreme Court found that, “in the face of no threat to women’s health,” Texas had required women to travel to distant surgery centers. (Margolies, 4/19)

Amid a historic impasse and financial crisis in state government, the early campaign for Illinois governor has quickly shifted to the always-volatile issue of abortion rights following Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner's vow to veto a bill aimed at keeping the procedure legal while expanding taxpayer-subsidized coverage for it. Rauner's decision helps him shore up support from conservative Republicans in a legislature that has seen the number of socially moderate GOP lawmakers dwindle, as well as from groups opposed to abortion rights. (Pearson, 4/19)

Campaigning as a pro-choice Republican in 2014, Bruce Rauner said he would sign legislation to ensure abortion remains legal in Illinois and to expand abortion coverage for state workers and Medicaid recipients. But last week Rauner said he would veto a measure pending in the Legislature that supporters say would do both, citing "sharp divisions of opinion of taxpayer funding of abortion." (Burnett, 4/19)

The Iowa House on Wednesday approved a $1.77 billion health and human services budget that blocks state funding from going to Planned Parenthood and other clinics that provide abortions. ...The bill calls for Iowa's Department of Human Services to discontinue the federal Medicaid family planning network waiver, foregoing about $3 million in federal funding. Instead, the state will use about $3.3 million to recreate its own family planning network so that it can prohibit the funding of clinics that provide abortions. (Pfannenstiel, 4/19)

Public workers could not use their government-sponsored health insurance plans for abortions in most cases, under a bill Republicans in the Legislature are considering. Republicans are seeking to advance the measure more than three years after abandoning an earlier version of the legislation that state Sen. Jon Erpenbach (D-Middleton) said at the time would unleash "all out hell" in the Senate. (Marley, 4/19)