Planned Parenthood filed a lawsuit against the state of Arizona on Monday in an attempt to overturn HB 2800, which restricts funding for its health clinics. Under the bill, individuals who are eligible for Medicaid may not seek health services at Planned Parenthood because the organization also performs abortions — a tactic to defund Planned Parenthood clinics. Conservatives have used this attack in 13 states across the country this past year.

Gov. Jan Brewer (R-AZ) signed HB 2800 into law this May, and it will go into effect on August 2 unless Planned Parenthood’s efforts are successful. Under the law, nearly 3,000 Medicaid patients who currently receive birth control and other preventive care at Planned Parenthood clinics will no longer be eligible for services there. Of course, low-income women who are eligible for Medicaid are often the population that most benefits from access to affordable preventative care at health clinics like Planned Parenthood.

In a press release from earlier today, Planned Parenthood Arizona’s President and CEO Bryan Howard expressed concern about Arizona’s push to deny low-income women access to his organization’s health services:

HOWARD: It is wrong for the state to tell Arizonans who they can and cannot see for their health care. The men and women of this state have the right to see the health care provider they deem is best for them. [...] It is unfortunate that our state and its lawmakers continue to put ideology and politics before the welfare of Arizonans. Women and men who come to Planned Parenthood aren’t making a political statement, they are coming to the get the health care they need from the provider they choose.

Following the Arizona legislature’s most recent anti-choice crusade, this is the second recent lawsuit to be filed against the state over radical anti-abortion legislation. Last week, three doctors — represented by the American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Arizona, and the Center for Reproductive Rights — sued Arizona over HB 2036, which has been widely considered the most extreme abortion ban in the nation because it criminalizes almost all abortions after just 20 weeks. Brewer signed HB 2036 into law this April.

Arizona is one of 26 states that the Guttmacher Institute considers “hostile to abortion rights.” Arizona’s two bills are in addition to the 37 other new laws restricting women’s access to abortion services that have been introduced in the first half of this year alone.

Tea Party-backed Attorney General of Virginia Ken Cuccinelli is doing everything in his power to make abortion restrictions more stringent in his state.

Cuccinelli essentially goaded the Virginia legislature into writing highly restrictive and unnecessary guidelines for abortion clinics, based on his own unsolicited legal guidance and legislation he failed to enact when he was in the statehouse. Those efforts took the form of Targeted Regulation of Abortion Providers (TRAP), which requires clinics to resemble an emergency room and undergo structural changes.

A few weeks ago, the Virginia Medical Board decided to exempt existing abortion clinics from the new requirements, leading Cuccinelli to refuse to certify the board’s decision.

A group named “Cooch Watch” after Ken ‘The Cooch’ Cuccinelli just launched to fight back. They aim to stop the attorney general from forcing his will on Virginians. Medical student and former abortion clinic worker Stephanie Arnold is leading the group of about 10 women. Arnold said on a call today that Cooch Watch plans to “attend Mr. Cuccinelli’s public events, ask questions, protest, and remind Mr. Cuccinelli that he is being watched” and will be “held accountable for his actions”:

Everyone knows that if clinics have to somehow find a quarter of a million dollars to unnecessarily upgrade, many will close their doors. [...] Cooch Watch is relevant now more than ever. [...]

The Attorney General has aspirations of running for governor and he’s really just shown a reckless abuse of power and it’s something that people need to be paying attention to. For us, this is starting with TRAP but I have every intention of continuing to keep an eye on him for the people of Virginia. He’s just on a rampage.

Virginia has become a major battleground on abortion rights. The state was in the news earlier this year for its invasive and unnecessary proposed transvaginal ultrasound bill, which led to statewide protests. They also passed a mandated 24-hour waiting period before abortions, and now require all women to have an ultrasound before the procedure. Places that the state lists as ultrasound providers are all anti-abortion “pregnancy crisis centers.”

Cooch Watch will start its activism tonight, attending a Tea Party rally at which Cuccinelli is speaking.

Yesterday afternoon, Yahoo named Marissa Mayer as their new chief executive officer. And shortly after the news broke, Mayer announced she was expecting a baby boy in October. This makes Mayer the first-ever pregnant CEO of a Fortune 500 company. That’s on top of being one of only 19 female CEOs in the Fortune 500.

Board members at Yahoo were aware that Mayer was expecting during the hiring process, and treated her pregnancy with a respect and deference very few women get to enjoy in the workplace. According to Mashable, an anonymous source said, “It was not part of the consideration. …Like every other professional woman, she has to weigh all the factors in doing her job and having a family”:

Mayer also expressed that she was pleased the Yahoo board was not concerned, telling Fortune their actions “showed their evolved thinking.”

And as far as maternity leave goes, don’t expect Mayer to be out of the office for long. The new CEO plans to return to the office after a few short weeks and will be working throughout her time off. Yahoo’s scheduled September board meeting will be in Sunnyvale, Calif., rather than New York, to accommodate for the expecting mother-to-be.

For most women, being pregnant can be a major ordeal, and many workplaces are not so accommodating. Though her maternity leave may be just “a few short weeks” after giving birth, the U.S. is one of the only nations that does not require any paid maternity leave.

In fact, just this week, RH Reality Check reported that the Pregnant Workers’ Fairness Act was dead on arrival in Congress. That bill that would have protected pregnant women from discrimination at work and required employers to make accommodations for mothers-to-be, including allowing them to have a bottle of water or a stool to sit on at work.

Her role as Yahoo’s CEO makes Mayer one of the most prominent women in business and tech. That should give her and her company a platform to lead by example on pregnant workers’ rights.

Peter V. Lee, the head of the California Health Benefit Exchange — the organization that will lead the state’s effort to implement the federal health care overhaul under Obamacare — said he dreams of a day when Americans will be able to log onto a computer and shop for health insurance in the same way as they shop for products on Amazon.

After President Obama signed the Affordable Care Act in 2010, California was the first state to set up a health care exchange under former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R). Now, under the California Benefit Exchange, the state is working to attract new subscribers, build out the enrollment system, and select the health insurers and the plans that will be provided. In addition to crafting policy, the California Benefit Exchange is also working on a PR campaign to more fully educate residents about their health insurance options.

As Lee explained to the Sacramento Bee, the political controversy surrounding Obamacare didn’t delay his state from taking the necessary steps to work toward a health exchange program that will benefit uninsured and low-income Californians:

LEE: We’ve been moving ahead full-throttle even before the Supreme Court decision. This doesn’t really change things for us. It changes things in the eyes of others, who are now saying, ‘Wow, this exchange thing is going to be real.’

This is a departure from lawmakers’ attitudes in states like Florida, South Carolina, and Wisconsin — whose governors have pledged to hold off on setting up health exchanges until after the presidential election, in case Mitt Romney takes office and works to repeal Obamacare.

States have to turn in their exchange plans to the federal government by November so that the state programs can be approved by Jan. 1, 2013, and California is already well ahead of the curve.