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A state grand jury in Louisiana has indicted a New York doctor for providing abortion pills to a Louisiana resident. The case appears to be the first time criminal charges have been filed against an abortion provider for sending pills into a state with an abortion ban. The charges mark a new chapter in an escalating showdown between states that ban abortion and those that want to protect and expand access to it. It is challenging one of the foremost strategies used by states that support abortion rights: shield laws intended to provide legal protection to doctors who prescribe and send abortion pills to states with bans. (Belluck and Cochrane, 1/31)

People who need abortions in Missouri have had to seek care outside of the state, even after voters enshrined the right to an abortion in the state constitution in November. That’s because a licensing requirement that applies to abortion facilities throughout the state remains in effect, even while other laws — including the near-total abortion ban — are temporarily on pause. Planned Parenthood representatives say they can’t begin offering the procedure unless the licensing requirement is blocked. (Taborda, 2/1)

Those who go hungry or worry about getting food while pregnant are at higher risk of complications such as preeclampsia and gestational diabetes, a new analysis suggests. The paper, published in JAMA Network Open, used data from an online health survey of more than 19,300 pregnant Kaiser Permanente Northern California members between June 2020 and September 2022. Researchers did not find similar risks among those who received food assistance while pregnant. (Blakemore, 2/1)

Amaryllis Castillo gets to work at 7:45 a.m. for her job as a certified home health aide. The mother of two, who is 26 weeks pregnant, works a six-hour shift caring for elderly patients, taking them to activities and out for lunch. At 5 p.m., she clocks in for her second job providing customer service, which she works until 9 p.m. She does that from home, which allows her to be with her children, who are 12 and two. (Somerstein, 2/1)

Pregnant patients with type 2 diabetes (T2D) treated with semaglutide (Ozempic) had mixed pregnancy outcomes, an observational study found. Among more than 4 million pregnancies, patients exposed to semaglutide were 26% less likely than controls to deliver preterm ... reported Emily Adams, MD, of Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, in a poster presentation at the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine annual meeting. (Robertson, 2/1)