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A new analysis of national abortion estimates found the number of abortions in 2023 increased slightly compared to the year prior. Telehealth abortions coupled with a number of states passing laws to protect clinicians are likely behind that trend. Still, in some states with restrictions or bans abortions dropped from several hundred to flatlining, sometimes reaching zero, by the end of last year. (Yousry, 5/30)

With Catholic Medical Center moving closer to a merger with for-profit company HCA Healthcare, some members of the public pressed for assurances that the hospital would preserve its religious identity – and particularly its opposition to abortion – during a public forum in Manchester this week. (Cuno-Booth, 5/31)

Republican candidates in all eight of the country’s most competitive Senate races have changed their approach on the issue of abortion, softening their rhetoric, shifting their positions and, in at least one case, embracing policies championed by Democrats. From Michigan to Maryland, Republicans are trying to repackage their views to defang an issue that has hurt their party at the ballot box since the Supreme Court overturned federal abortion rights. While the pivot is endemic across races in swing states, the most striking shifts have come from candidates who unsuccessfully ran for the Senate just two years ago in their home states, with abortion views that sounded very different. (Bidgood and Lerer, 5/30)

As presidential candidates and state legislators campaign over the future of abortion in America, elections for the third branch of government have largely escaped scrutiny on the issue. Until now. Since the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade, elections for state supreme court justices have become a new political frontier in the abortion fight, with interest groups pouring unusual amounts of money into typically little-known races. (Pinho, 5/30)

A new poll shows that men of color overwhelmingly support legal abortion. Eighty-eight percent of Black men support total legal abortion, according to a new poll from All* In Action Fund and HIT Strategies. Support is slightly lower among Asian American men at 83 percent, and among Latino men, 81 percent of whom support abortion.  (Daniels, 5/30)

Â鶹ŮÓÅ Health News' 'What The Health?' Podcast: Waiting For SCOTUS

June means it’s time for the Supreme Court to render rulings on the biggest and most controversial cases of the term. This year, the court has two significant abortion-related cases: one involving the abortion pill mifepristone and the other regarding the conflict between a federal emergency care law and Idaho’s near-total abortion ban. (5/29)

On their very first date, Kirsti and Justin Mahon talked about wanting kids. They met on a dating app in 2016, nine months after Kirsti moved from Texas to Florida. Almost immediately, they fell in love. A little over two years later, they got married. Six months after that, they started trying for a baby. (Teirstein and Kutz, 5/30)