Monday, October 7, 2024

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1/ The Supreme Court refused to require doctors in Texas to perform certain emergency abortions, rejecting a Biden administration appeal that federal law requires access to emergency abortion care even in states that restrict the procedure. The court’s decision leaves in place a lower court’s ruling that hospitals can’t be required to perform emergency abortions in violation of the state’s abortion ban. Texas Senate Bill 8, passed in September 2021, effectively banned abortions after six weeks of pregnancy with few exceptions. The strict abortion law has led to nearly 10,000 more births than expected over a nine-month period and infant deaths in the state have increased by nearly 13%. (Washington Post / Associated Press / NBC News / Axios / Bloomberg)

2/ The Georgia Supreme Court reinstated the state’s six-week abortion ban.The ruling came a week after a judge found that Georgia unconstitutionally prohibits abortions beyond six weeks of pregnancy – before many women realize they’re pregnant – because “liberty in Georgia includes in its […] bundle of rights the power of a woman to control her own body, to decide what happens to it and in it, and to reject state interference with her healthcare choices.” The State Supreme Court, however, left in place the lower court’s ruling that blocked a separate provision of the law that allowed state prosecutors to obtain the medical records of women who’ve had abortions. (New York Times / Associated Press / NBC News / Politico / CNN / Washington Post)

3/ Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has refused to take calls from Biden or Harris as Hurricane Milton “explosively” intensified into a Category 5 storm head...

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