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High-profile disputes about whether Florida abortion clinics improperly performed second-trimester abortions will be argued before administrative law judges. Cases involving Planned Parenthood clinics in St. Petersburg, Fort Myers and Naples and the Aastra Women's Center in Plantation were sent this week to the state Division of Administrative Hearings, records show. (10/2)

Utah says it will continue sending federal money to the state's Planned Parenthood organization through the end of the year. State Department of Health spokesman Tom Hudachko said Friday that contracts Utah sought to cancel or allow to expire will remain in place through 2015 as a legal challenge over the funding continues. (10/2)

Arkansas will block most Medicaid funding to Planned Parenthood, Gov. Asa Hutchinson said Friday, after a judge ordered the state to continue paying for services only to the three women who are suing over the governor's decision to end payments to the organization. U.S. District Judge Kristine Baker issued a preliminary injunction requiring the state to pay for the services for three unnamed women, referred to in the suit as Jane Does, challenging the contract's termination. Baker last month reinstated the contract for all Planned Parenthood for two weeks, and that order expired late Friday afternoon. (DeMillo, 10/2)

A U.S. district judge on Friday ordered Arkansas to continue payments to Planned Parenthood for its treatment of three women who challenged Governor Asa Hutchinson's directive cutting off Medicaid reimbursements to the organization. The order applied only to the cases of the three plaintiffs, although the judge suggested that Planned Parenthood as an organization might successfully challenge the cutoff. (Barnes, 10/2)

An arsonist threw a container with flammable liquid through the window of a Southern California Planned Parenthood facility, setting off a small fire, authorities said. Authorities have not made any arrests, identified a suspect or discussed possible motives behind the fire. (10/2)

A large stone and samples of an accelerant used to set fire to a Planned Parenthood facility in Thousand Oaks have been sent to a laboratory for testing, authorities said. No arrests have been made in the arson, but detectives expect the test results will offer information on the type of accelerant used and possibly clues about the arsonist, said Capt. John Reilly of the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department. (Rocha, 10/2)

As undercover videos released by anti-abortion activists roiled the nation this summer, sparking outrage directed at Planned Parenthood and reigniting questions about the use of tissue from aborted fetuses, the Birth Defects Research Laboratory at the University of Washington quietly continued the work it has done for more than 50 years. Since 1964, the Seattle lab has been a federally funded hub for the collection and distribution of tissues for research, obtained from miscarriages, stillbirths and abortions — including, recently, donations from a Planned Parenthood clinic in Washington state. (Aleccia, 10/3)