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When South Carolina passed a law last year to provide pregnant workers and new mothers with more protections in the workplace, it was driven by an unlikely alliance: supporters of abortion rights working alongside religious groups that oppose them. “We were all on the same page pragmatically,” said Ashley Crary Lidow, associate director of policy and government relations at the Women’s Rights & Empowerment Network in Columbia, S.C., which supports abortion rights. Palmetto Family Council, a religious advocacy group in Columbia, also said the partnership had “raised some eyebrows” around the Statehouse. (Bernard, 7/12)

Timing threatens to stymie efforts to let the public vote on a new Missouri law banning abortions at eight weeks of pregnancy or later after the state Supreme Court on Friday refused to intervene to force the state's top election official to act quickly. At issue is a push by the American Civil Liberties Union of Missouri to put the anti-abortion law on the 2020 ballot. ACLU attorneys now worry that if Republican Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft doesn't act fast to process the petition, the organization could be left with as little as two weeks to collect the more than 100,000 signatures need to put the law to a vote. (Ballentine, 7/12)

The Missouri Supreme Court won’t reconsider an appeals court decision that effectively delays the ACLU of Missouri from gathering signatures to overturn Missouri’s recently passed eight-week abortion ban. It’s a move that places the ACLU of Missouri’s referendum in serious jeopardy, because there may not be enough time to gather roughly 100,000 signatures to spark a 2020 election. (Rosenbaum, 7/12)

An Oklahoma judge on Friday upheld a ban on a common second-trimester abortion procedure in what abortion rights proponents decried as a "rogue" decision that will threaten the reproductive rights of women throughout the state. Oklahoma County District Judge Cindy Truong ruled from the bench following arguments over the ban approved by the state's Republican-controlled Legislature and signed into law in 2015. (Murphy, 7/12)

The law, which was put on hold during the legal challenge, was passed by the state’s GOP-controlled legislature and signed into law in 2015. The only exceptions to the ban are if the woman’s life is in danger or if a serious health risk is posed to her. The Center for Reproductive Rights, which challenged Oklahoma’s law, tweeted Friday that “we cannot overstate the harm the decision will have” on women in the state. (Campisi, 7/12)

The email warned that the legislator was in the crosshairs of Republicans for opposing the anti-abortion bill that has rocked Georgia politics, and it invited donors to a fundraiser to give $481 contributions “in honor of our fight against” House Bill 481. Several of Democratic state Rep. Mike Wilensky’s supporters came to a Sandy Springs mansion with donations in hand, and a message to send, as they listened to actor Ric Reitz outline his fears that the new abortion restrictions will gut Georgia’s film industry. (Bluestein, 7/12)