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It’s never been easier to have a safe abortion. With improvements in drugs designed to end a pregnancy and the spread of telemedicine, women all over the world are gaining access to low-risk, noninvasive abortions. But does this really mean that dangerous procedures are becoming a thing of the past? To find out, a team led by researchers at the World Health Organization in Geneva and the Guttmacher Institute in New York scoured abortion data from 61 countries and determined the level of safety for each procedure. The results were published Wednesday in the journal Lancet. (Kaplan, 9/27)

A federal appeals court cleared the way Wednesday for Arkansas to impose new restrictions on the way the abortion pill is administered in the state, saying it won’t reconsider a panel’s decision in favor of the 2015 law. The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said it won’t reconsider a three-judge panel’s ruling lifting a federal judge’s preliminary injunction against the law. The measure requires doctors providing the abortion pill to maintain a contract with another physician with admitting privileges at a hospital who agrees to handle any complications. (DeMillo, 9/27)

A federal court struck down a law in Kentucky on Wednesday that requires women seeking an abortion to first undergo an ultrasound and hear a description of the embryo or fetus. The U.S. District Court Western District of Kentucky ruled that the state law is unconstitutional because it violates the free-speech rights of the patient and doctor, court documents showed. (9/28)

The ACLU said in a statement that the court recognized that the law “appears to inflict psychological harm on abortion patients,” and causes them to “experience distress as a result.” Attorney Alexa Kolbi-Molinas with the ACLU’s Reproductive Freedom Project said in the statement that, “We are pleased that Kentuckians will no longer be subjected to this demeaning and degrading invasion into their personal health care decisions.” (9/27)

Essure, a device that represents the only permanent, non-surgical form of contraception, will no longer be available for purchase anywhere in the world except for America, though the U.S. Food and Drug Administration continues to monitor the device’s safety and efficacy. (Craven, 9/27)