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Planned Parenthood of the Heartland and its medical director, Dr. Sarah Traxler, are appealing the dismissal of their lawsuit challenging a Nebraska law that bans most abortions after 12 weeks of pregnancy and restricts gender-affirming care for transgender people under age 19. ... The Planned Parenthood group and Traxler filed a notice of appeal Friday with the Nebraska Supreme Court. They are represented by the American Civil Liberties Union, its Nebraska affiliate, and Powers Law.

An abortion rights group in Nebraska is taking initial steps to put the issue on the ballot in 2024. A political campaign committee called Protect Our Rights filed paperwork earlier this month in support of a ballot initiative that would amend the state constitution to protect the right to an abortion. (Weixel, 8/18)

Health regulators Monday ordered an Orlando abortion clinic to pay a $193,000 fine for violating a law that requires women to wait 24 hours before having abortions, nearly three times the fine recommended by an administrative law judge. The state Agency for Health Care Administration issued a final order requiring the Center of Orlando for Women to pay a $1,000 fine for each of 193 violations shortly after the law took effect in April 2022. Administrative Law Judge J. Bruce Culpepper this spring issued a recommended order that said the clinic should pay a $67,550 fine — $350 for each violation. But under administrative law, the recommended order had to go to AHCA for a final decision. (Saunders, 8/18)

The ruling has no immediate effect on the availability of mifepristone. ... But what is clear, experts say, is any restriction on mifepristone would have ripple effects for the entire abortion-care system. In 2020, 53% of all facility-based U.S. abortions used medication, rather than surgical methods. If mifepristone becomes harder or impossible to access, providers would either have to change their standards of care to continue offering medication abortions, or find a way for an already overburdened clinical network to squeeze in hundreds of thousands of extra procedural-abortion appointments. “This could ultimately be a cataclysm for U.S. abortion access,” says Caitlin Myers, who researches the issue at Middlebury College. “Or it might be nothing.” (Ducharme, 8/18)

The Alabama Department of Public Health (ADPH) on Thursday approved a set of rules that would require birthing centers to have oversight by a physician or medical director at its State Committee of Public Health meeting in Montgomery. The rules proposed would also require birth centers to be within 30 minutes of a hospital with OB-GYN services. (Rocha, 8/18)

As a new postpartum pill for women gains national attention, health experts say it’s also important to highlight men’s mental health needs after having a baby, with researching showing 1 in 10 fathers experience postpartum depression and anxiety. A new study also suggests addressing paternal mental health is vital for baby's health after finding children born to dads with depression are at increased risk of developing depression themselves. (Rodriguez, 8/19)

In her late 40s, Celia Chen began experiencing unexplained symptoms like anxiety, a spike in blood sugar, acne and chronic pain in her shoulder — all of which she attributed to her high-pressure job as a marketing executive at a start-up, which involved red eye flights and long hours. After switching to a new gynecologist, at 48, she learned that these changes were related to her transition to menopause, known as perimenopause. And that the stress of the job was only making them worse. Ms. Chen says her doctor told her, “‘your body is screaming for you to stop.’” (Gupta, 8/19)