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The Biden administration on Friday urged a federal judge in Amarillo, Texas, to dismiss a bid by Missouri, Kansas and Idaho to restrict access to the abortion pill mifepristone nationwide, saying the three Republican-controlled states have no basis for bringing their claims in the Texas court. The states brought their lawsuit against the U.S. Food and Drug Administration by intervening in a case that was started by anti-abortion doctors and medical groups. By filing in Amarillo, the original plaintiffs had ensured that the case would go to U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, a staunch conservative and former Christian activist. (Pierson, 11/1)

A group of New York doctors is making a last-minute attempt to sway voters in favor of Proposition 1, a ballot measure that would enshrine abortion rights in the state constitution. A letter released Monday with more than 150 signatures from health care providers across specialties argues that Prop 1 is crucial for protecting reproductive health care access in New York amid abortion restrictions and bans in other states that have made it harder for some pregnant patients to get needed medical services — even if they’re not seeking an abortion. (Lewis, 11/4)

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) said New Yorkers who vote Republican in the state’s tight congressional races are “anti-woman” and “anti-American.” “If you’re voting for these Republicans in New York, you are voting for someone who supports Donald Trump, and you’re anti-woman, you’re anti-abortion, and basically, you’re anti-American because you have just trashed American values and what our country is about over and over and you wear this on Election Day,” Hochul said Saturday on MSNBC’s “PoliticsNation,” highlighted by Mediaite. (Irwin, 11/3)

Referendum 434 would enshrine the state’s current ban after 12 weeks. Referendum 439 would create a right to abortion “until fetal viability.” Many voters are having trouble parsing the wording on ballots as well as mixing up which measure aligns with their views. Local news outlets have offered lengthy explainers, and billboards and ads have tried to demystify the measures. (Searcey, 11/3)

A group of 111 OB-GYNs in Texas released a letter to elected state leaders Sunday urging them to change abortion laws they say have prevented them from providing lifesaving care to pregnant women. The doctors pointed to recent reporting by ProPublica on two Texas pregnant women who died after medical staff delayed emergency care. (Salhotra, 11/3)

Texas' strict abortion laws have hindered doctors in the state, leaving them unable to offer comprehensive maternity care to pregnant women, according to Dr. Emily Briggs, an obstetrician and family physician who works in central Texas. To date, no doctor has been prosecuted for violating the ban, which is now a felony, but the confusing and inconsistent law has doctors worried about how they interact with their patients. Briggs considers it a "dangerous situation." Last year, the number of OB-GYN resident applicants in Texas dropped 16%. (Alfonsi, Chasan, Velie and Costas, 11/3)

Thea Thompson was about 18 weeks pregnant when an ultrasound technician told her in September that she was going to have a baby girl. She and her husband were excited to welcome a second child into their family. But the good news stopped there. Thompson, 37, was having a detailed ultrasound after previous genetic testing showed her fetus had a small risk of developing abnormalities. She could tell her medical team did not like what they saw. (Colombini, 11/1)

Florida’s election will test whether the state maintains its new reputation as a Republican stronghold, or whether Democrats make some gains by tapping into the support for abortion and marijuana ballot questions and the new energy Vice President Kamala Harris brings to the race. Gone are the days when Florida was looked at as the biggest prize among swing states. After former President Barack Obama won Florida twice, former President Donald Trump carried the state by a whisker in 2016 and then by a much larger share in 2020. In 2022, Republicans took all five statewide seats on the ballot by landslide margins. (Farrington, 11/4)

Vice President Kamala Harris thinks she can win the election on an abortion rights message. Former President Trump thinks he can win on immigration. In Arizona, they’ll find out who was right. None of the seven swing states puts the two campaigns’ top issues in such stark relief. Arizona is the only border state among the battlegrounds and the only one where abortion access is on the ballot as a potential amendment to the state Constitution. (Pinho, 11/3)

The Supreme Court's landmark 2022 overturning of Roe v. Wade has had an impact on women's health beyond abortion, accelerating a gap in obstetrics and gynecological care in some states across the country. In Texas, the first state to implement more restrictive abortion laws, a fear of discussing abortion has impacted doctors practicing there and the medical students and OB-GYN residents looking to learn there. (McCandless Farmer, 11/3)

�鶹Ů�� Health News: What’s At Stake: A Pivotal Election For Six Big Health Issues

In the final days of the campaign, stark disagreements between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump over the future of American health care are on display — in particular, in sober warnings about abortion access, the specter of future cuts to the Affordable Care Act, and bold pronouncements about empowering activists eager to change course and clean house. (Allen, Galewitz, Rovner and Chang, 11/1)