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The Arizona Legislature on Thursday joined the growing list of Republican-led states to pass aggressive anti-abortion legislation as the conservative U.S. Supreme Court is considering ratcheting back abortion rights that have been in place for nearly 50 years. The House voted on party lines to outlaw abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy, mirroring a Mississippi law now being considered by the nation’s high court. (Christie, 3/24)

The Arizona law makes an exception for medical emergencies and requires physicians to file a report with the Arizona Department of Health Services if an abortion is performed after 15 weeks. There is no exception for cases of rape and incest. The bill makes it a felony for physicians to knowingly violate the new statute, but the bill says that no criminal punishment can be directed toward the maternal patient. Physicians could also face consequences such as having their license to practice medicine in the state suspended or revoked, along with fines if they are found to have given false information on forms related to the abortion. (Mizelle and Afshar, 3/24)

A Houston-area lawmaker is threatening to introduce legislation against companies offering to pay for employees' abortion-related expenses. The warning in question comes from Republican State Rep. Briscoe Cain (R-Deer Park), who in a recent Facebook post announced he is crafting a bill in response to Citigroup Inc.'s new company policy offering to cover travel expenses for employees traveling across state lines to seek the procedure. (Garcia, 3/24)

Citigroup quietly expanded employees' health coverage in January to include paying for travel to obtain an abortion, a decision other large employers are likely to face as states impose new restrictions. Illustrating the sensitivity of the issue, Citi did not proactively tell workers of the benefit change. Instead, the bank disclosed it on Page 20 of a 152-page investor proxy filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The filing said, “in response to changes in reproductive healthcare laws in certain states in the U.S., beginning in 2022 we provide travel benefits to facilitate access to adequate resources.” (Buchwald, 3/24)

The roar of anti-abortion laws sweeping through U.S. state houses is echoing loudly in human resources offices. Companies that have offered to help cover travel costs for employees who have to go out of state for abortions are trying to figure out how to go about it. Large corporations like Citigroup Inc., Apple Inc., Bumble Inc., Levi Strauss & Co. and Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co. are now offering such benefits for reproductive-care services not available in an employee’s home state. (Butler, 3/24)

A Leon County circuit judge indicated Wednesday she will uphold a 2015 state law that would require women to wait 24 hours before having abortions, opponents of the law said. Circuit Judge Angela Dempsey held a hearing on a motion by Attorney General Ashley Moody’s office to reject a constitutional challenge to the law. Dempsey had not issued a written ruling Wednesday afternoon. The Republican-controlled Legislature and then-Gov. Rick Scott approved the law, which is aimed at requiring women to wait 24 hours after initial clinic visits before having abortions. The Florida Supreme Court in 2017 approved a temporary injunction against the law, but the fight has continued in lower courts. (Saunders, 3/24)

Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, a recent rising force in North Carolina Republican politics and a vocal abortion opponent, confirmed Thursday that he and his future wife decided to get an abortion more than 30 years ago. Robinson and his wife, Yolanda, appeared in a video to address a social media post the lieutenant governor said he wrote 10 years ago — years before entering politics — but had gained attention this week. “Before we were married and before we had kids. We had an abortion,” Robinson says in the video. “It was the hardest decision we have ever made and sadly, we made the wrong one.” (Robertson, 3/24)

A century ago, sex researcher Katharine Bement Davis published an excerpt from her ongoing study of women’s sexuality in which she revealed the frequency with which married women practiced contraception — and, when it failed, obtained abortions. But then, as now, discussions of women’s sexuality were deeply controversial. Davis’s study redefined birth control, masturbation and lesbianism as “normal,” but it also cost her job. At the heart of this controversy, then and now, is women’s ability to control their own bodies. (Jabour, 3/25)

The Guttmacher Institute, the World Heath Organization and the UN’s Human Reproduction Programme (HRP) today released the first-ever model-based estimates of unintended pregnancy and abortion rates for 150 countries, highlighting major disparities in access to sexual and reproductive health care. The study, published in BMJ Global Health, analyzes rates from 2015 to 2019, with the aim of providing deeper insights into access to sexual and reproductive health services in countries of all income levels across the globe. (3/24)