(  )  Abortion will be on the ballot in a couple of states in 2026.  Nevada’s government will ask residents to approve an amendment that would enshrine abortion in the constitution for the second time, as required by state law.  The same measure passed in 2024 with about 64 percent of the vote.  Virginians will likely see a similar ballot initiative.  Last month voters there cemented a majority for Democrats in the state legislature, and the House of Delegates is expected to put forth an abortion amendment in the fall of 2026.  Pro-life advocates in Missouri want to undo an amendment protecting abortion that voters narrowly passed in 2024.

(  )  The national dispute over medication abortion is playing out in Washington, D.C.  A group of 51 Republican senators and 22 GOP attorneys general have asked the FDA to reinstate the 2021 in-person restriction and upend the transit of abortion pills.  In response, 47 Democratic senators and 20 attorneys general have issued letters supporting the safety of abortion drugs.  HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Junior has ordered his FDA chief to commence a review of the pills.  However, Bloomberg is reporting that the FDA has postponed that planned review until sometime after the 2026 midterm elections.

(  )  A federal judge has permanently ordered Georgia’s prison system to keep providing some kinds of so-called “gender-affirming care” for transgender prisoners.  The state plans to appeal.  U.S. District Judge Victoria Calvert ruled that a new state law denying hormone therapy to inmates violated their protection against cruel and unusual punishment under the Eighth Amendment to the Constitution.  Some legal analysts believe that this case or one similar to it will reach the U.S. Supreme Court at some point in the future.  For the moment, states are trying to decide whether or not to spend taxpayer cash to promote transgenderism.