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Montana’s Supreme Court has upheld a lower court’s ruling that temporarily blocks further restrictions on abortion. Planned Parenthood in a statement Tuesday announced that the Montana Supreme Court blocked three separate laws that were enacted during the state’s legislative session last year from taking effect. (Oshin, 8/9)

The U.S. Department of Justice asked a federal judge this week to bar Idaho from enforcing its near-total abortion ban while a lawsuit pitting federal health care law against state anti-abortion legislation is underway. Meanwhile, the Republican-led Idaho Legislature is asking for permission to intervene in the federal case, just as it has done in three other abortion-related lawsuits filed in state courts. (Boone, 8/9)

A Teton County judge said she’ll rule Wednesday whether or not to extend a temporary halt on Wyoming’s abortion ban. The decision is likely to come before noon, when the two-week restraining order she set in July is scheduled to expire. (Walkey, 8/9)

The North Carolina attorney general’s office, representing defendants in a 2019 case that blocked a state law banning most abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy, has joined plaintiffs in asking a federal court not to restore the ban after the judge suggested his injunction “may now be contrary to law. ”Reinstating restrictions in the aftermath of the June U.S. Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade would create “significant risk of public confusion” about the availability and legality of abortion services in North Carolina, the attorney general’s office argued in a brief filed late Monday in U.S. District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina. (Schoenbaum, 8/9)

Julie Burkhart, co-owner of Hope Clinic and a longtime abortion-access advocate, said the facility is and will be a “point of refuge” going forward for Southern and Midwestern states with the U.S. Supreme Court decision eradicating the constitutional right to an abortion. The patient census has doubled since the June 24 court decision. The clinic is now serving 40 to 50 people a day, Amy Redd-Greiner, the front-desk supervisor at Hope, said in between handing patients their intake forms and answering the ringing desk phone. (Ladd and Duvall, 8/10)

The fall of Roe v. Wade is giving Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker new resolve to wield his immense bank account against his fellow governors and make his mark on abortion rights outside his state. A wealthy heir to the Hyatt hotel empire, Pritzker has already cut $250,000 checks this election cycle to boost Democratic gubernatorial campaigns and parties across the Midwest, including Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in Michigan. He also gave $2 million to the Democratic Governors Association last month, according to a person familiar with his campaign. Now, Pritzker intends to pour in more money and target more states where a Democratic governor might be the lone firewall against new abortion restrictions. (Kapos, 8/9)

It will soon be illegal in Seattle to discriminate against people for seeking or receiving an abortion, part of the city’s efforts to preserve reproductive rights locally. The Seattle City Council on Tuesday passed a measure making it illegal to discriminate against someone based on their actual or perceived pregnancy outcome, The Seattle Times reported. The council also added a statewide misdemeanor charge for interfering with health care to the city’s code, hoping to minimize interference and harassment against those seeking care in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court undoing decades of constitutional abortion protections in June. (8/10)

For New Mexico state Rep. Micaela Lara Cadena, the arrival of a new abortion clinic in Las Cruces, the city she represents, is surreal. Over the years, there hasn’t been consistent access to the procedure as providers came and went. (Melhado, 8/10)

Doctors are weighing the legal risks of turning over ultrasounds and other personal health records if prosecutors or law enforcement demand the information to enforce state abortion bans. (Gonzalez, 8/10)