Abortion rights

Three years after winning a big legal battle, abortion providers still find themselves losing the ground war when it comes to keeping clinics open across the huge, populous state.

The hearing on Thursday will use Missouri — where the last remaining clinic that provides abortion could close over a dispute with health regulators — as a case study.

In Virginia and Kentucky, activists on both sides of the abortion debate are working to elect candidates at the state level with the power to affect abortion policy.

The abortion-rights group says the goal of the $45 million campaign is to unseat President Trump as well as elect candidates at all levels who support abortion rights.

At issue is a Louisiana law that mirrors a Texas law the court struck down. What's different, however, is that Justice Anthony Kennedy, who cast the decisive fifth vote in the 2016 case, has retired.

The administration called on other nations to oppose efforts to promote access to abortion. Dozens of other countries signed a competing statement supporting sexual and reproductive health care.

Activists are spreading information about self-induced abortion online and in person. The World Health Organization says a single drug, misoprostol, can be used to safely induce abortion.

The rate fell again in the most recent Guttmacher Institute survey, continuing a decline since 1980.

The Austin City Council is defying Texas state legislators, setting aside $150,000 in city funds to help local women who seek abortions pay for attendant costs, such as transportation or child care.

A federal lawsuit seeks to block the Food and Drug Administration from taking enforcement actions against a European doctor or her U.S.-based patients for prescribing or buying abortion pills online.

State lawmakers are expected to pass a bill requiring campus health centers to provide pills used for medication abortions. If the measure becomes law, it will be the first of its kind in the U.S.