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Three states are renewing a legal push to restrict access to the abortion medication mifepristone, including reinstating requirements it be dispensed in person instead of by mail. The request from Kansas, Idaho and Missouri filed Friday would bar the drug’s use after seven weeks of pregnancy instead of 10 and require three in-person doctor office visits instead of none in the latest attempt to make it harder to get a drug that’s used in most abortions nationally. (Mulvihill, 10/16)

Voters in nine states are deciding next month whether to add the right to abortion to their constitutions, but the measures are unlikely to dramatically change access — at least not immediately. Instead, voter approval would launch more lawsuits on a subject that’s been in the courts constantly — and more than ever since the U.S. Supreme Court in 2022 overturned Roe v. Wade and opened the door to state abortion laws. In some states where the issue is on the ballot, it’s already widely available. (Mulvihill, 10/17)

A Mississippi judge dismissed a lawsuit Tuesday that challenged a potential conflict between a 2022 state law that bans most abortions and a 1998 state Supreme Court ruling that said abortion is guaranteed in the Mississippi Constitution because of the right of privacy. Hinds County Chancery Judge Crystal Wise Martin wrote that the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists lacks legal standing for the lawsuit it filed against the Mississippi State Board of Medical Licensure in November 2022. (Pettus, 10/16)

The citizen-led ballot initiative Floridians Protecting Freedom has filed a lawsuit against state health officials alleging political speech has been censored in the state. The Florida Department of Health previously sent a cease and desist letter to television stations across Florida that aired an ad in support of an abortion-rights ballot initiative, Amendment 4. The ballot initiative would enshrine abortion rights into the state constitution, overturning the current law that bans abortion after six weeks of pregnancy. (Irwin, 10/16)

Florida Democrats have launched a multi-million-dollar campaign to urge voters to pass the initiative that would guarantee access to abortion in the nation’s third largest state. The decision by Democrats to invest millions now in ads demonstrates how important state party leaders view Amendment 4 as part of their push to regain relevance in the former battleground state. Democrats — who remain at a significant financial disadvantage to Republicans — have been sharply critical of abortion restrictions pushed into law by Gov. Ron DeSantis and the GOP-controlled Legislature. (Fineout, 10/16)

When Emilia Kim returned to Tucson in August after studying abroad in China, her first ever summer spent away from her mom, her vision for her future had shifted. Kim, now a senior at Basis Oro Valley High School, could no longer picture herself becoming a mom. (Meiners, 10/16)

In an election where the future of reproductive rights is on the ballot in Maryland and elsewhere across the country, the state’s all-male congressional delegation stands to gain an influx of women. It could happen in Maryland’s 6th Congressional District, where Democrat April McClain Delaney is running against conservative Republican Neil Parrott, a former member of the Maryland House of Delegates. They’re competing to represent a wide swath of rural Maryland and more affluent liberal suburbs of Washington, D.C. (Skene, 10/17)

Marriage made the Smiths a family of eight — Tillia came with five kids, and Travis with one. As 7-year-old Margot, one of two additions to their brood since then, burrowed between them on the sofa, Tillia laughed, “we’re a Brady Bunch.” Tillia recounted the couple’s decision to grow the family to nine, then ten. (Stern, 10/16)

Italy passed a law on Wednesday that criminalizes seeking surrogacy abroad, a move the country’s conservative government said would protect women’s dignity, while critics see it as yet another crackdown by the government on L.G.B.T. families, as the law will make it virtually impossible for gay fathers to have children. Surrogacy is already illegal in Italy. But the government of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has vowed to broaden the ban to punish Italians who seek it in countries where it is legal, like in parts of the United States. (Bubola, 10/16)