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Hospitals and their health systems are not advertising abortion in a way that is consistent with other common outpatient procedures, a cross-sectional observational study of U.S. hospital websites showed. Of the 222 patient-facing websites sampled, 79.4% did not mention abortion, while only 11.1% did not mention colonoscopy, reported Ari Friedman, MD, PhD, of the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine in Philadelphia, and co-authors. Websites described offering abortion care 6.3% of the time compared with 85.6% for colonoscopy, they noted in the Annals of Internal Medicine. (Robertson, 10/16)

When Diana Greene Foster and her team at the University of California, San Francisco, started their study on the lives of women who were denied abortions in 2008, they sought to investigate a rather commonly held view: That having an abortion hurt women’s mental and physical health, including by leading to PTSD and drug and alcohol use disorder. (Merelli, 10/17)

Ohioians are voting on whether to approve a constitutional amendment that would create a right to abortion in the state. Ohio is the only state directly voting on abortion this year, and it is attracting high levels of outside investment and national attention. Both abortion rights advocates, who are on a winning streak with ballot measures nationwide, and anti-abortion advocates see the vote as a critical test for the 2024 election. (Panetta, 10/16)

�鶹Ů�� Health News: Michigan Voters Backed Abortion Rights. Now Democrats Want To Go Further. 

Nearly every day, Halley Crissman and her physician colleagues in Michigan must tell patients seeking abortions they’re very sorry that they can’t proceed with their scheduled appointments. “Patients tell me, ‘Doctor, why are you stopping me from getting the care that I need?’” said Crissman, an OB-GYN who provides abortions as part of her practice and is also an assistant professor at the University of Michigan. “The answer is that Prop 3 made access to abortion care a right in Michigan. But these [other] laws remain on the books.” (Wells, 10/17)

Reproductive Freedom for All wanted to center Black women and other women of color with its latest name change. (Keith Gaynor, 10/16)

Dr. Aaron Campbell is part of a growing cadre of abortion providers traveling great distances to provide care. (Andrews, 10/17)

Most people anticipate the day of their child’s birth to be one of the happiest of their lives, but the experience isn’t always so uncomplicated. Things can change quickly when delivering a baby, and the experience could start to look different from what you expected, said North Carolina-based labor and delivery nurse Jen Hamilton. The goal of labor is to have a happy and healthy mom and baby at the end, but it should be the minimum of what we strive for, she said. (Holcombe, 10/16)