A bill to greatly expand health-care coverage for women after giving birth is nearing its final hurdle in the Arizona Legislature - and with bipartisan support, it's expected to pass.

Under Senate Bill 1272, Medicaid coverage for new mothers would expand from 60 days to 12 months. Studies show Arizona currently has one of the highest rates of pregnancy-related deaths in the country.

Will Humble, executive director of the Arizona Public Health Association, said the effort to expand Medicaid coverage - known as AHCCCS (Access) in Arizona - has support from both sides of the aisle.

"I don't think you would see AHCCCS being as supportive as they are if there wasn't support in the governor's office for this," he said. "So, I think all of the indicators suggest that this is going to be a successful bill this year."

According to Humble, the change would benefit many families in the state's low-income and marginalized communities, who have little or no access to affordable health care. The measure was passed earlier by the state Senate and awaits final approval in the House.

Humble said attempts to expand maternal health care in previous sessions were blocked by the Legislature's Republican majority, which refuse to pay for the measure with Arizona tax dollars.

"The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services is encouraging states and financially incentivizing states to add this coverage up to the first year," he said. "It's making it a much more palatable bill for those fiscal conservatives that would be concerned about using state dollars."

Former state Sen. Heather Carter, who was a sponsor of similar legislation in previous sessions, said Black and Indigenous women are two to three times more likely to die than white women within the first year after giving birth.

"We have challenges in Arizona with postpartum deaths," she said, "and so, we need to do all we can to make sure that moms and babies have an opportunity to get life started out on the right foot."

Reproductive rights advocates are cheering Minnesota's new law centering around abortion access. Supporters predict it could help in other ways for rural patients.

Yesterday, Gov. Tim Walz signed the Protect Reproductive Options Act, making Minnesota the first state this year to firmly enshrine abortion rights since last summer's U.S. Supreme Court decision, which overturned federal protections.

The state already had legal safeguards from a mid-1990s state Supreme Court ruling.

Becky Twamley, board president of the Reproductive Health Alliance, said women in rural regions still have trouble getting reproductive care, even when meeting with local health providers.

"Women may go to a physician, and they won't even prescribe contraception, much less talk about what their other options are," Twamley pointed out.

She acknowledged some instances are still likely to occur, but added the new law might also quell some of the misinformation floating around reproductive care. The law states Minnesota residents have a fundamental right to options. Republican lawmakers, who are in the minority this session, have argued the law is too extreme.

Anti-abortion groups often cite personal religious beliefs in wanting to implement restrictions. But Twamley suggested the issue has become so divisive, it is often reduced to talking points that do not address the complexities of reproductive care.

"There's a lot of hyperbole around it," Twamley asserted. "I think we need to counter that with facts."

The group Power to Decide said nearly 300,000 women who are at or below the poverty level in Minnesota live in so-called "contraceptive deserts."

Backers of Minnesota's new protections say they are also vital since many other Midwestern states either now have abortion bans in place or are poised to enact them.

The Massachusetts Attorney General's Office has announced the launch of a new hotline for abortion-care providers and people seeking confidential legal advice.

The Abortion Legal Hotline will offer help accessing abortion-care resources for both residents and people traveling to the Commonwealth for abortion services.

Rep. Ayanna Pressley, D-Ma., reminded people there is no shame in having an abortion or seeking information regarding one's own health care.

"The only shame is that there are unrelenting, coordinated legislative efforts and forces at work to deny you that which is your fundamental human right, and that is access to health care," Pressley asserted.

The hotline will be run by Reproductive Equity Now, the Women's Bar Foundation and five law firms offering pro bono services, and can be reached at 1-833-309-6301.

Andrea Campbell, Attorney General, joined Pressley in announcing the new hotline and the Commonwealth's commitment to protecting abortion rights, and both drew attention to the collective grief surrounding Tyre Nichols, a 29-year-old Black man killed by police in Memphis earlier this month.

Campbell noted reproductive justice is about more than access to abortion.

"But it is about the right to parent a child in a safe and healthy community, and police violence interferes with that right," Campbell contended.

Following the Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade last year, more than a dozen states moved to ban or restrict access to legal abortion care.

In Massachusetts, lawmakers passed one of the strongest shield laws protecting abortion providers, as well as access to care for both residents and those who cross state lines to access health care services.

New York pharmacists would be able to dispense abortion medication under newly proposed legislation, and a person could get the prescription from a physician online or by mail.

This comes after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued new guidance allowing retail pharmacies to sell abortion pills.

According to the Guttmacher Institute, medication abortions made up 54% of all abortions in the country in 2020.

State Assemblywoman Amy Paulin, D-Scarsdale, the bill's author, said it hasn't been filed yet, but if it passes, it should help people who don't want to visit an abortion clinic.

"If you can walk into a pharmacy and get this medication over the counter, you're much more likely to do it," she said. "Not everybody's going to go to a provider; not everyone feels comfortable. And providers are doing this with telehealth, so it doesn't require an exam."

The bill is part of a larger push by New York elected officials to expand abortion services in the state. In anticipation of the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that ended federal abortion rights last June, Gov. Kathy Hochul signed a far-reaching package of legislation to improve access, as well as $35 million allocated to support abortion providers in New York State's 2022 budget.

While the bill is still in its earliest stages, Paulin said she's ready to meet whatever challenges come when it is filed. Abortion opponents in New York have encouraged such alternatives as better family services and making adoption easier.

Paulin said she knows the work won't end with this bill, adding that she is eager to work on whatever comes next.

"I'm working closely with advocate groups, like Planned Parenthood and ACOG, so if barriers come up, we will immediately address them," she said. "I think right now, we're just exploring some of those barriers and we will be putting legislation in shortly to alleviate them."

Other upcoming legislation would have all SUNY and CUNY colleges and universities offer abortion care, new protections of personal data for anyone seeking an abortion, and increased doctor reimbursement rates for reproductive health-care services.