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Far fewer medical school graduates are pursuing obstetrics-gynecology residencies as the battle over reproductive healthcare and abortion rages, making an existing shortage of specialists in the field worse. There was a 5.2% decrease in senior OB-GYN residency applicants this year, according to the Association of American Medical Colleges. The drop in applicants more than doubled in 13 states with abortion bans. (Devereaux and Berryman, 4/18)

New doctors applying to medical residency programs were likelier to avoid practicing in states with the most stringent abortion restrictions, an analysis from the Association of American Medical Colleges found. Why it matters: The drop in applications, particularly for OB-GYN residencies, could exacerbate the lack of maternal health care in those states, which already have the highest maternal mortality rates in the U.S. (Dreher and González, 4/18)

The legal effort to ban mail-order abortion pills came along just as the fledgling telehealth industry became a more accepted and entrenched part of abortion care. This week, Hey Jane, one of more than a dozen virtual abortion providers that have no physical locations, began contracting with the insurers Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield of Connecticut, Empire Blue Cross Blue Shield of New York and Sana, which provides health plans for small businesses nationwide. Hey Jane also already accepted Aetna in eight of the nine states in which it operates. (Miller and Sanger-Katz, 4/18)

Tennessee budget writers on Tuesday said they will funnel $20 million of taxpayer dollars to help fund anti-abortion centers, marking a dramatic reduction from the original $100 million proposed by Gov. Bill Lee several months prior. “After a considerable conversation, both negotiating teams agreed that we would leave $20 million in the budget for crisis pregnancy centers,” said state Sen. Bo Watson, chairman of the Senate Finance, Ways and Means Committee. “We would also like to have further discussions on exactly who these crisis pregnancy centers are and what they do.” (Kruesi, 4/18)

Vice President Kamala Harris on Tuesday applauded efforts under way in Nevada to enshrine abortion rights in the state constitution, saying the move stands in stark contrast to other states where such rights are under assault. “What you are doing at the statewide level is so important,” she said during a forum on the University of Nevada, Reno, campus. Harris said she met Tuesday with several state lawmakers who supported a resolution in the state Senate this week to amend Nevada’s constitution to include abortion rights up to 24 weeks. (Sonner and Stern, 4/19)