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A second person has been arrested in connection to a Texas midwife who is accused of providing illegal abortions at a network of clinics operated outside of the Houston area. Jose Manuel Cendan Ley, a 29-year-old medical assistant, is accused of performing an illegal abortion and practicing without a license at a clinic in connection to Maria Margarita Rojas whose arrest was announced Monday by Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. (Lathan, 3/18)

When the news broke on Jan. 31 that a New York physician had been indicted for shipping abortion medications to a woman in Louisiana, Dr. Kohar Der Simonian was hit by a wave of emotions, among them fear and concern. Der Simonian works as medical director for Maine Family Planning, which is 1,500 miles from Louisiana. Like the indicted doctor, Margaret Carpenter, Der Simonian mails abortion medication to patients in states where the procedure is banned — and her own name is written on the prescriptions. (Westwood, 3/19)

Democrats’ efforts to close the gap between the right to end a pregnancy in Colorado and the cost of the procedure by letting health insurance safety net programs pay for abortions is expected to save the state money, according to an analysis by nonpartisan legislative staff. That’s because some Medicaid and Child Health Plan Plus recipients aren’t getting abortions because of the cost. And it’s cheaper to end a pregnancy than to deliver a baby. (Paul, 3/18)

U.S. births rose slightly last year, but experts don’t see it as evidence of reversing a long-term decline. A little over 3.6 million births were reported for 2024, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention preliminary data. That’s 22,250 more than the final tally of 2023 U.S. births, which was released Tuesday. The 2024 total is likely to grow at least a little when the numbers are finalized, but another set of preliminary data shows overall birth rates rose only for one group of people: Hispanic women. (Stobbe, 3/18)

Amid growing evidence of slowing fertility rates in the United States, a new report contained a pair of surprising details from two divergent age groups: A growing number of women older than 40 are having children and a record low number of teenagers are giving birth. The report, released earlier this month by the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), showed that the U.S. fertility rate ... continued its decadeslong slide through 2023, with American women having an average of 1.62 children, compared to 1.66 in 2021 and 2022. (Varney, 3/18)

Financial pressures on rural hospitals keep some North Carolina facilities from adequately serving pregnant women, new mothers and babies, but that isn’t the full picture. Workforce shortages and demographic shifts — coupled with a lack of regulatory requirements and policy support — compound the problem, further distancing women from the care they need. (Sartwell, 3/19)