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A new legal challenge from Planned Parenthood seeks to preserve Medicaid payments for its health centers in South Carolina after a Supreme Court decision put the federal funding in jeopardy. On Thursday, Planned Parenthood South Atlantic filed an amended complaint in federal court challenging the constitutionality of executive orders from Republican Gov. Henry McMaster that block Medicaid reimbursements for organizations providing abortions, even though the funds are used to provide other medical care. The South Carolina clinics provide services such as contraception, cancer screenings, annual exams and testing for sexually transmitted diseases. (Harris, 8/21)

For more than a decade, Jonna Quinn fought to keep what she once thought was her perfect life — and job — in Mason City. Quinn was an OB-GYN at a hospital nearby. She was initially thrilled to work just an hour away from where she grew up. But little by little, she said the hospital started restricting care, like certain birth control options and fertility treatments, based on its affiliation with the Catholic Church. At the same time, her unit was becoming increasingly short-staffed. (Krebs, 8/21)

Increasing access and coverage for healthcare services for all women, with a specific focus on Black women, is crucial to closing racial disparities in maternal outcomes, according to a report from the McKinsey Institute for Economic Mobility. In 2023, the maternal mortality rate for Black women was approximately 50 deaths per 100,000 live births, compared to 15 deaths for white women, 12 for Hispanic women and 11 for Asian women, according to CDC data published in February. (Twenter, 8/21)

Menopausal women have been warned against spending time and money on "unnecessary" direct-to-consumer services that might not actually be of benefit. A group of doctors have warned against the risks or benefits of hormone therapy being exaggerated, the over-promotion of supplements and testing and marketing being disguised as advocacy. (Millington, 8/21)

“Toddler milks” are marketed to parents who have been using infant formula as a necessary next step in their child’s nutritional journey, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics. Critics say these expensive concoctions — first introduced into the United States in the 1990s — are not nutritionally necessary, may be contributing to childhood obesity, and should not be sold at all. (LaMotte, 8/21)

James Dobson, who founded the conservative Christian ministry Focus on the Family and was a politically influential campaigner against abortion and LGBTQ+ rights, died on Thursday. He was 89. Born in 1936 in Shreveport, Louisiana, Dobson was a child psychologist who launched a radio show to counsel Christians on parenting and started Focus on the Family in 1977. Alongside fundamentalist giants like Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson, he became a force in the 1980s for pushing conservative Christian ideals in mainstream American politics. (Catalini and Meyer, 8/21)