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.

Maine elected a wave of Democratic women to state office in 2018. They've pushed Maine to join a handful of other states shoring up the right to an abortion ahead of expected Supreme Court challenges.

The court did not take up the part of the law that banned abortions because of fetal abnormality or race or sex of the fetus, which a lower court had knocked down in addition to the burial provision.

The legislation bans abortions as soon as a heartbeat can be detected, which typically occurs about six weeks into a pregnancy. The controversial law is expected to trigger a lengthy legal battle.

If Melinda Gates had fully owned her goal — writing a book that would strengthen some readers' abortion-rights convictions and open others' minds — she would have called for greater advocacy.