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Crisis pregnancy centers are back at the Supreme Court. The justices on Monday agreed to consider whether New Jersey can investigate anti-abortion clinics that seek to dissuade women from ending their pregnancies. The case, First Choice Women’s Resource Centers v. Platkin, is largely a First Amendment dispute. The clinics argue that the New Jersey attorney general’s demand for donor information would have a “chilling effect” on their ability to solicit money and operate. The question facing the justices in oral arguments this fall, then, is how and when federal courts can hear challenges to the constitutionality of such state-level subpoenas. (Ford, 6/17)

Ohio Republican lawmakers are planning to introduce a bill that would completely ban and criminalize abortion, IVF and some forms of contraception. Anti-abortion advocate Austin Beigel, who works for End Abortion Ohio, told News 5 exclusively that new legislation is about to be introduced to overturn the state's 2023 constitutional amendment to protect access to abortion, fertility treatments, contraception, miscarriage care and the decision to continue a pregnancy. ... "It goes against the majority opinion of the people of Ohio, and that is something that we are proud of, because there have been many times in our country's history where the people have asked for something evil — slavery was once legal in this country," he said. (Trau, 6/16)

Abortion providers and reproductive rights advocates are devastated by the assassination of a Minnesota state lawmaker and her husband over the weekend by a suspect who allegedly planned to also target abortion providers. Former state Speaker Melissa Hortman (D) and her husband were shot and killed in their home just outside of Minneapolis on Saturday. Minnesota state Sen. John Hoffman (D) and his wife were wounded in a shooting by the same suspect. (O’Connell-Domenech, 6/16)

Two years ago Megan Kling and her husband were eagerly looking forward to the birth of their third child. Then at 20 weeks they got devastating news from their doctor. The infant, upon being born, would have no chance of surviving. He lacked critical internal organs and his brain and heart were both abnormal. “Our baby would die, either in utero or within hours after birth,” Kling told reporters Monday morning. “We were in a situation with no good outcome.” The diagnosis was confirmed at 22 weeks — and by then, Kling said, her doctors were unable to help her because of an 1849 Wisconsin law that at the time was still being interpreted as a near-blanket ban on abortion. (Gunn, 6/17)

Mothers bear much of the burden for a child’s healthy development, from pregnancy through their teen years. But a large, new study adds to the growing body of evidence saying fathers, too, are responsible for the types of development that help children grow physically, emotionally and cognitively. (Rogers, 6/16)

Bo Wheeler tried to remain stoic for his family. He kept calm when his wife’s water broke 28 weeks into her pregnancy and their twins, Max and Vivi, were delivered via emergency cesarean section, weighing less than 2.5 pounds each. He worked to stay positive during the four months that followed, even as his son struggled in the neonatal intensive care unit with seizures, a brain bleed and his breathing. (Schencker, 6/14)

When Tyrone Green’s youngest son was diagnosed with autism, his wife was immediately ready to get the 3-year-old the support he needed. But Green was stuck: He had questions about his son’s future and an overwhelming feeling of loneliness — like no one, not his wife, not his friends, understood his experience. ... In 2021, he joined a Black fathers’ support group and met a few other dads eager to discuss their unique challenges. They started their own podcast in 2023 called AutisHIM, a place where Black dads talk about the wins and setbacks of having autistic children. (Hunter, 6/15)