Each week, Rewire News Group editors scour headlines nationwide—from lawsuits over abortion access to LGBTQ+ rights—to bring you the most urgent news in reproductive justice. Here’s this week’s latest.

HHS acted “with cruelty” in targeting gender-affirming care, judge says

A federal judge voided HHS Sec. Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s anti-trans funding policy that led an estimated 40 hospitals to halt gender-affirming care for trans youth. Nineteen states sued, arguing it’s federal overreach to deny Medicare and Medicaid money to hospitals that offer gender-affirming care to minors. “Unserious leaders are unsafe,” Judge Mustafa Kasubhai wrote in a scathing April 18 ruling siding with the plaintiffs. Kennedy, he added, showed “wanton disregard for the rule of law” and acted “with cruelty.”

Pennsylvania court calls abortion a “fundamental right”

A 1982 Pennsylvania law blocking Medicaid funds from being used to pay for abortion care except in cases of rape or incest violated the state’s constitution, a state appeals court ruled on April 20. In the 4-3 ruling, the majority decided that the old law constituted sex-based discrimination and said abortion is a “fundamental right.” “The state will face judicial scrutiny of its attempts to coerce reproductive choice,” Judge Matthew S. Wolf wrote in the opinion. “Those choices are the people’s, not the government’s.”

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Idaho advocates say abortion may soon be on the ballot

Idahoans will likely see abortion rights on the ballot this year. Advocates for repealing the state’s abortion ban said last week that they had gathered 102,000 signatures—more than enough to put forward a constitutional amendment. The Reproductive Freedom and Privacy Act Initiative would allow abortion care until fetal viability (between 24 and 26 weeks of pregnancy) and later in medical emergencies. “We have a legislature that has failed to act for four sessions, so it’s time for this,” an organizer told the Idaho Statesman.

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