Michael Hiltzik: “It wasn’t a stretch to predict that the strict abortion bans in states such as Texas, Louisiana, Oklahoma and Arkansas would have demographic effects — driving residents out of those states and reducing migration from abortion-protective states.”

“New research has validated that prediction and put meat on its bones. Most notably, economists at Georgia Tech reported in a paper published this month that by mid-2023, the 13 states with total bans had suffered a combined net loss of an estimated 36,000 residents per quarter, or more than 144,000 per year.”

“President Donald Trump’s campaign-trail promise to leave abortion regulation to the states lasted just a few days into his presidency,” Politico reports.

“He issued executive orders on Friday that revive some anti-abortion policies from his first administration — including restrictions on federal funding for family planning and other health programs abroad that discuss abortion as an option or provide referrals for the procedure.”

The Justice Department said it will roll back Biden-era efforts to criminally charge demonstrators who interfere with patient access to reproductive health clinics, calling those prosecutions an example of the “weaponization” of law enforcement, the Washington Post reports.

A government website for women seeking information about reproductive health and abortion rights was seemingly taken down just hours after President Trump assumed office, the Daily Beast reports.

“Pharmacists have begun prescribing abortion pills, not simply dispensing the medication — a development intended to broaden abortion access by taking advantage of rules that give them prescribing ability in most states,” the New York Times reports.

“The new effort is small so far — a pilot program in Washington State — but the idea is expected to be tried in other states where abortion remains legal.”

Washington Post: “A quarter century ago, prompted by a spate of abandoned babies in Houston, this state became the first in the country to pass a safe haven law allowing parents to relinquish newborns at designated places — without questions or risk of prosecution. Yet ‘Baby Moses’ surrenders remain rare in Texas, and another series of abandoned infants since spring in the Houston area has prompted much soul-searching.”

“Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has filed a lawsuit accusing a New York doctor of prescribing abortion drugs to a Texas resident in violation of state law,” the Texas Tribune reports.

“This lawsuit is the first attempt to test what happens when state abortion laws are at odds with each other. New York has a shield law that protects providers from out-of-state investigations and prosecutions, which has served as implicit permission for a network of doctors to mail abortion pills into states that have banned the procedure.”

“The Texas committee that examines all pregnancy-related deaths in the state will not review cases from 2022 and 2023, the first two years after Texas’s near-total abortion ban took effect, leaving any potential deaths related to abortion bans during those years uninvestigated by the 23 doctors, medical professionals and other specialists who make up the group,” the Washington Post reports.

“Antiabortion advocates are moving aggressively in the wake of the election to devise new measures to punish people and organizations that help women get abortions, feeling emboldened to crack down on the flow of abortion pills into states with bans and no longer burdened by fear of political backlash,” the Washington Post reports.

“Antiabortion leaders are particularly energized by the prospect of their allies filling key posts in a Trump administration.”

“A state judge on Monday struck down Wyoming’s overall ban on abortion and its first-in-the-nation explicit prohibition on the use of medication to end pregnancy.” CNN reports.

“The abortion-rights movement did everything it could to convince voters that Donald Trump was too dangerous to allow back into the White House. It didn’t work,” Politico reports.

“As the magnitude of Democrats’ defeat becomes clear, abortion-rights leaders and candidates who made the issue central to their campaigns are struggling to understand how millions of people could have voted for ballot initiatives restoring or expanding access to the procedure while also voting for Trump and other Republicans with a history of curtailing those rights.”

“While the early focus on a Trump administration Food and Drug Administration has been on vaccine policy, one of its first moves could be overhauling the federal rules that have made it easier to access the widely used abortion pill mifepristone,” Axios reports.

“Use of the drug has surged as states enacted near or total abortion bans after Roe v. Wade was overturned in 2022. But new agency leadership could quickly move to roll back some of the policies that were the focus of a closely watched Supreme Court case this year.”

Politico: “Drawing on the playbook they successfully used under Roe v. Wade to regulate clinics out of existence and outlaw particular methods of abortion, conservative groups plan next year to file lawsuits targeting federal regulation of abortion pills and push legislation in Congress and in at least 15 states they believe can circumvent constitutional amendments and court rulings protecting the procedure.”

“Most of the bills target mifepristone — the drug used in more than two-thirds of abortions nationwide. Some attempt to wield environmental laws to cut off access, while others aim to replicate Louisiana’s new law designating abortion pills as controlled substances — a policy that patients and doctors are claiming in court has led to delays in treatment for miscarriages and postpartum hemorrhaging.”

“Florida’s abortion-rights ballot initiative fell short of passing on Tuesday, leaving in place a six-week abortion ban that has helped restrict access across almost all of the Southern U.S.,” The Hill reports.