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Former secretaries of the Army, Navy and Air Force as well as former high-ranking military service members say that restricting access to mifepristone, the medication used in more than half of all medical abortions in the U.S., would hurt recruitment, military readiness and cause undue harm to national security. In a brief filed to the U.S. Supreme Court ahead of oral arguments March 26 in a case challenging the availability of the drug, former secretaries Louis Caldera of the Army, Ray Mabus of the Navy and Deborah James of the Air Force urged the court to reject any move to limit its access. The three secretaries all served under Democratic administrations. (Kime, 2/1)

A controversial 15-day abortion ban and a constitutional amendment to protect abortion rights were both met with defeat in the New Hampshire House on Thursday. "It has been challenging, just a week past the birth of my daughter, to consider giving a floor speech," Rep. Amanda Toll, D-Keene, said. (Sexton, 2/1)

Amid ongoing uncertainty about when abortions are permissible in Texas, the state’s medical board is under growing pressure to issue guidance on what type of emergency qualifies for an exemption from the state’s abortion ban. (Goldhill, 2/2)

Adults who transport other people’s minor children across Mississippi state lines to get an abortion without permission could face criminal charges for “abortion trafficking” under a bill a Republican state representative introduced this week. It’s one of several abortion-related bills lawmakers introduced in the House in January, alongside bans on advertising abortion information and mail-order abortion pills. House Bill 713, which Rep. Dan Eubanks of DeSoto County introduced in the House on Jan. 29, says that an adult who is not a child’s parent and tries “to conceal an abortion from the parents or guardian of a pregnant, unemancipated minor” by helping the child obtain an abortion or “abortion-inducing drug” would be committing the crime of “abortion trafficking.” An offender could face fines of up to $10,000 or two to five years of imprisonment, including for cases in which they helped a child obtain an abortion in Mississippi—where nearly all abortions are banned. The bill would not prevent parents or guardians from taking their child to get an abortion. (Harrison, 2/1)

When K Monica Kelly saw that women in Texas had filed a lawsuit challenging the contours of their state’s abortion ban, she posted on Instagram to cheer them on. “I shared how terrible I thought it was, that they weren’t able to get the proper healthcare they needed in their state,” Kelly said. “It never crossed my mind that that was actually going to happen to me soon.” Kelly and her husband spent a year trying to have a second baby. So when they discovered in February 2023 that Kelly was pregnant, the couple was ecstatic. They taught their son, who was then two years old, to describe their family as: “Mama, dada, me, baby, all four!” After an ultrasound looked promising, and they drove more than 10 hours from their home in northern Tennessee to announce the news to their family in Florida. (Sherman, 2/1)

The disingenuously named “Pregnant Students’ Rights Act” offers no real support to pregnant and parenting students. (Bader, 2/1)

A group of female Pennsylvania voters who backed former President Donald Trump in 2020 and support at least some abortion rights said in focus group interviews that they don’t see their views on abortion as a barrier to voting for Trump again in 2024. It’s an illuminating window into how a group of potential swing voters — previous Trump voters concerned about abortion access — are engaging with one of Democrats’ key issues ahead of the next election. Despite labeling abortion as a top issue facing women in America, most of the women who participated in the two focus groups said they’d back Trump in a rematch against President Joe Biden, explaining that other issues are more important to their vote. (Kamisar and Murray, 2/1)

Democratic members of Congress are urging the Biden administration to do more to protect pregnant patients seeking medical treatment from criminal prosecution - a threat they say has intensified in the aftermath of the Supreme Court's 2022 decision overturning decades of abortion-rights precedent. The new letter, spearheaded by the Democratic Women's Caucus, references the case of Brittany Watts, an Ohio woman who faced felony charges after suffering a miscarriage last year. (McCammon, 2/2)

�鶹Ů�� Health News: �鶹Ů�� Health News' 'What the Health?': The Struggle Over Who Gets The Last Word 

The Supreme Court in March will hear oral arguments in two very different cases that boil down to the same question: How much power do “experts” in health and science deserve? At stake is the future accessibility of the abortion pill mifepristone, and the ability of government officials to advise social media companies about misinformation. Meanwhile, abortion opponents are preparing action plans in case Donald Trump retakes the White House. While it’s unlikely Congress will have enough votes to pass a national abortion ban, a president can take steps to make abortion far less available, even in states where it remains legal. (2/1)

The first over-the-counter birth control pill in the U.S. will hit the market soon, and the Biden administration is facing pressure from Democrats and reproductive health groups to make sure it’s affordable.  The manufacturer of Opill says it’s on track to make the drug available sometime during the first quarter of this year, meaning it could be on shelves by March.  (Meyn, 2/2)

The Defense Department would have to undertake a detailed study of service members' and spouses' access to maternity care within the military health care system under bills being introduced Thursday by a bipartisan group of lawmakers from both chambers of Congress. Lawmakers hope the bills will ultimately improve access to prenatal, birthing and postpartum care for those covered by Tricare amid reports in recent years of women struggling to be seen by an obstetrician. (Kheel, 2/1)

�鶹Ů�� Health News: Colorado Legal Settlement Would Up Care And Housing Standards For Trans Women Inmates 

Taliyah Murphy received a letter in early 2018 about a soon-to-be-filed class-action lawsuit brought on behalf of transgender women like her who were housed in men’s prisons in Colorado. It gave her hope. Murphy and other trans women in Colorado had faced years of sexual harassment and often violence from staff members and fellow incarcerated people. They were denied requests for safer housing options and medical treatment, including surgery, for gender dysphoria, the psychological distress that some trans people experience because of the incongruence between their sex assigned at birth and their gender identity, according to the lawsuit. (Clark, 2/2)

The National Institute of Health (NIH) has awarded over $200,000 to researchers to create a "transgender voice training" app that aims, in part, to help trans women sound more feminine. ... "Transgender and gender diverse people exhibit a significantly lower quality of life than the general public," according to an abstract of the study first reported by The College Fix. "One reason for this is voice dysphoria: distress because a person’s voice does not match their gender identity (e.g., trans women with deep voices)." (Tietz, 2/1)