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The Health and Human Services Department has once again revisited conscience protections for providers who object to delivering medical services such as abortions on religious or moral grounds. HHS issued a final rule Tuesday that takes effect immediately and mostly rescinds a 2019 regulation that aimed to broaden the conscience policy but was struck down by federal courts before HHS implemented it. HHS published a draft version of the new rule in 2022. (Hartnett, 1/9)

The Biden administration stopped a company from selling data on people’s medical visits on Tuesday, its first settlement on a privacy issue that has many Americans concerned about who can see their most sensitive personal data — particularly visits to abortion providers. After an investigation, the Federal Trade Commission said it had reached a settlement with Outlogic, a location data broker formerly known as X-Mode Social, which had been collecting information on people’s visits to medical centers. (Ng, 1/9)

On Monday, Florida state Rep. David Borrero (R) introduced a bill, HB1519, that seeks not only to implement a near-total abortion ban in the state but also classifies performing an abortion as a third-degree felony. The proposed penalty includes a potential imprisonment term of up to 10 years, a fine of up to $100,000, or both.HB1519 defines a “person” as “including an unborn child beginning at the moment of fertilization,” therefore granting fetuses constitutional rights. Borrero, the representative who filed the bill, has said that he believes that “a person exists from the moment of fertilization.” This language is concerningly similar to that of fetal personhood bills that would equate abortions with murder. (McNeill, 1/9)

The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to consider the legality of Idaho’s abortion law — and to reinstate its highly restrictive ban in the meantime — is expected to galvanize a push for similar measures in other states, even before the court issues a ruling later this year. (Goldhill and Merelli, 1/10)

Hadley Duvall's story was a key piece of Gov. Andy Beshear's reelection campaign. Now, she hopes it propels the Kentucky legislature to take action. Duvall, who miscarried as a teen years ago after being raped by her stepfather, joined state Sen. David Yates, D-Louisville, in the Capitol rotunda Tuesday morning as the legislator announced plans to file a bill that would add several exceptions to the Bluegrass State's near-total ban on abortions. "It took me a while to find my voice," Duvall said. "But now that I have, I intend to keep using it to speak out for other girls and women who need it." (Aulbach, 1/9)

�鶹Ů�� Health News: California Offers A Lifeline For Medical Residents Who Can’t Find Abortion Training 

Bria Peacock chose a career in medicine because the Black Georgia native saw the dire health needs in her community — including access to abortion care. Her commitment to becoming a maternal health care provider was sparked early on when she witnessed the discrimination and judgment leveled against her older sister, who became a mother as a teen. When the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, Peacock was already in her residency program in California, and her thoughts turned back to women like her sister. (Udesky, 1/10)

Attorneys for a 17-year-old girl told a jury in Fort Worth that her strict upbringing, and abortion laws for minors, contributed to her hiding her pregnancy and making plans to kill the child just after she gave birth. The girl has pleaded true to the capital murder charge, the juvenile equivalent of pleading guilty in adult court. ... Fort Worth police Detective Christopher Parker read a series of texts and Snapchat messages to the court, where the girl and the baby's father, a boy who lived down the street, discussed how they were afraid to tell their parents about the pregnancy and what they could do to end it. (Allen, 1/9)

Planned Parenthood has opened a clinic in southern Illinois aimed at Tennesseans and others in abortion-ban states looking for such services, the organization announced this week. A ribbon cutting for the new health center in Carbondale was held on Monday. Abortion is banned in Tennessee, though the state has adopted an exception for women whose lives are medically at risk of death. (1/10)

The country's leading reproductive health care provider and a majority of its newly unionized employees in Minnesota and several other Midwestern states have reached a tentative agreement on its first contract. Service Employees International Union Healthcare Minnesota & Iowa (SEIU) announced Tuesday that the agreement with Planned Parenthood North Central States (PPNCS) was reached during their 37th bargaining session, with the final one wrapping up in the middle of the night after almost 14 hours of negotiations. (Swanson, 1/9)

Cesareans are surging in the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico, which has one of the world’s highest rates with more than 50% of babies now delivered via surgery compared with only 32% on the U.S. mainland, according to a federal report released Wednesday. The rates of cesarean delivery on the island increased from 2018 to 2022 for each age group younger than 40 after remaining stable for nearly a decade, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The report did not provide an explanation, but medical experts in Puerto Rico say reasons behind the surge vary and include the island’s crumbling health care system. (Coto, 1/10)

Across the country, maternity mortality rates are high, particularly for Black and Hispanic mothers. The racial disparity is causing many women to experience poorer childbirth outcomes. Virtuously B’Earthed Doula Services is working to help reduce that rate in the St. Louis region. This fall, women who are bilingual in Spanish, Arabic, French or Somali can receive doula training in English and materials in their other language through the agency’s Train-the-Trainer program. (Henderson, 1/10)

The former director of the University Hospitals’ fertility lab on Monday sued the attorney who defended him in a lawsuit involving the malfunction that rendered 4,000 embryos and eggs nonviable in 2018. (Shaffer, 1/9)