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The Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected South Carolina’s request to reinstate its blockade on Medicaid funding to Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers, a move that could indicate the court’s conservative majority may be selective about abortion cases as a new member is expected to soon join its ranks. The case is one the first major reproductive rights challenges the court has considered since the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg last month, and its rejection was announced on the second day of Senate hearings for President Donald Trump's nominee to the court, Amy Coney Barrett. Both sides of the abortion debate have been closely watching how aggressive the court’s conservatives will move to roll back abortion access with Barrett seemingly on track for confirmation later this month. (Ollstein, 10/13)

The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected a years-long effort by South Carolina leaders to cut off public funding for two Planned Parenthood clinics that provide abortions in the Palmetto State. The country’s highest court declined to consider an appeal in which Gov. Henry McMaster sought to remove two Planned Parenthood clinics — one in Charleston and one in Columbia — from the state’s Medicaid network. The high court, in essence, upheld previous rulings that prevent South Carolina from shutting off government reimbursements to Planned Parenthood clinics that treat Medicaid patients, the health insurance program for the poor. (Wilks, 10/13)

The high court’s rejection means that last year’s ruling from the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals will remain in effect, prohibiting the state from terminating Planned Parenthood as a Medicaid provider. While it takes four justices to approve a petition, the court doesn’t publish the vote totals and it declined to hear the case without comment. (Hellman, 10/13)

Reproductive health care nonprofit Planned Parenthood corrected comments made by Senator Ted Cruz during Amy Coney Barrett's Supreme Court confirmation hearings, where he referred to birth control pills as "abortion inducing drugs." The Texas senator referred to birth control as such when discussing assumed threats on religious freedom, referencing the Supreme Court case of The Little Sisters of the Poor Saints Peter and Paul Home v. Pennsylvania. "It also extends to religious liberty. The Little Sisters of the Poor, our Catholic Convent of nuns, who take oaths of poverty, who devote their lives to caring for the sick, caring for the needy, caring for the elderly, and the Obama administration litigated against the little sisters of the poor, seeking to fine them in order to force them to pay for abortion-inducing drugs among others," he said during his lengthy address at the hearings. (Crowley, 10/13)

Twitter users are sharing their positive experiences of using non-profit Planned Parenthood for services other than abortion, amid a reignited debate about reproductive rights in the U.S. The hashtag gained traction on Twitter the same day that Planned Parenthood, which provides reproductive healthcare, corrected Senator Ted Cruz after he wrongly referred to birth control as "abortion inducing drugs." (Gander, 10/14)

Michigan Senator Gary Peters, a Democrat, and one who tends to steer clear of national headlines, made history Monday when he shared his family’s personal experience with abortion in an interview with Elle Magazine. Less than a month before a pivotal election, Peters is the first sitting senator in the US to publicly break the silence on such a highly contended and politicized issue. (Bowker, 10/13)