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Abortion politics took center stage at the Tuesday morning confirmation hearing for President Donald Trump’s pick to run the Department of Veterans Affairs. VA Secretary nominee Doug Collins, a former Republican congressman from Georgia, was asked more than once by Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee Democrats whether he would roll back a Biden administration rule allowing the agency to provide abortion counseling and, in some cases, the procedure itself. (Leonard, 1/21)

The Virginia Senate passed three resolutions Tuesday to enshrine abortion rights, same-sex marriage and the automatic restoration of felon voting rights in the Virginia Constitution, the latest action in a years-long amendment slog. The Senate votes came a week after the House of Delegates, also narrowly controlled by Democrats, passed its own versions of the resolutions. The legislation has to pass both chambers twice, with an intervening election, and then win approval by voters in separate referendums before it can make it into the constitution. (Vozzella, 1/21)

A pregnant woman seeking a medication abortion in Nebraska would be required under a new bill to attend an in-person appointment with her physician before receiving the drugs and a follow-up appointment after to document any “adverse events.” Legislative Bill 512, by State Sen. Rick Holdcroft of Bellevue, has proposed the Chemical Abortion Safety Protocol Act. It would apply to any “abortion-inducing drug” that has the specific intent of terminating a pregnancy. State law already prohibits telemedicine for receiving abortion medications, but Holdcroft said his goal is to prevent physicians from flying into Nebraska just to prescribe the drug, then leave. (Wendling, 1/21)

Once again, Kentucky legislators have filed bills that would add exceptions to the commonwealth's near-total ban on abortions. And once again, they face an uncertain future in two chambers with Republican supermajorities that are divided on the issue. Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle filed two bills to open up abortion access under certain circumstances during the first week of the legislative session, which began in early January and will reconvene in the first week of February. (Aulbach, 1/22)

Last week, Sen. Thom Tillis, R-NC, led Republican colleagues in introducing the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act (SB 6). This bill would ensure that newborns surviving abortions would receive care from healthcare providers. (Zehnder, 1/21)

After Roe v. Wade was overturned, LaDonna Prince decided to move her abortion clinic from Indiana, where abortion became banned, to a town just over the border in Illinois, where abortion is legal. But Prince said she encountered a surprising new reality for abortion clinics: The local community can significantly affect how providers deliver care, even in states where abortion is legal and protected — and providers are beholden to their neighbors in ways that go beyond the direct letter of the law. Abortion providers say that hostility from the local government and community members have made it nearly impossible to get the new clinic up and running. (McPhillips, 1/22)

President-elect Trump campaigned on leaving abortion decisions to the states, but that could prove a tough promise to keep as he returns to the Oval Office. Anti-abortion groups want Trump to quickly take executive action to re-impose federal restrictions from his first term; Republicans in Congress are poised to send him new abortion legislation; and his Justice Department will need to decide whether to continue defending Biden-era abortion policies across several ongoing federal cases or drop them completely.  (Weixel, 1/20)