Abortion rights

Groups opposed to abortion rights have signed a letter asking federal health officials to urge abortion providers to "cease operations" in an effort to preserve medical equipment.

Rep. Dan Lipinski, the moderate eight-term Democratic congressman, lost his primary to business consultant Marie Newman.

The state has one remaining clinic in St. Louis, but Planned Parenthood officials say just three abortions were performed there in February, down from 174 in the same month a year ago.

Trump has addressed the annual march remotely before, but Friday marked the first time a sitting president has spoken in person at the anti-abortion rights event.

A Supreme Court case in March will test the new five-member conservative majority. If justices strike federal abortion protections, look for a state-by-state quilt of abortion "deserts" and "havens."

The state now requires women and girls under 18 to obtain permission from their parents or a judge. But in a recent poll, most Massachusetts voters favored letting minors decide on their own.

Hope Medical Group for Women in Shreveport is challenging a 2014 state law requiring doctors who perform abortions to have admitting privileges at a local hospital in case of an emergency.

In new amicus briefs, the American Medical Association and American Bar Association are among groups opposing the law, which is scheduled for oral arguments in March.

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.