A New York Times opinion piece by Dorothy Samuels on Thursday examined a 1992 decision by the operating board of Alaska's Matanuska-Susitna Valley's community hospital to bar physicians from performing abortions at the hospital except in cases of rape, incest, when the pregnant woman's life is in danger or when a physician documents "the fetus has a condition that is incompatible with life.

The New York Times on Wednesday examined objections from the Cardinal Newman Society -- a conservative Catholic group -- and New York Cardinal Edward Egan to

The political future of Republican vice presidential nominee Gov. Sarah Palin (Alaska) is the subject of "intensive conversations" among prominent conservatives, including a group of conservative leaders who will meet Nov. 5 to weigh the party's approach to various political issues and the next presidential election, the New York Times reports.

In an attempt to attract Christian voters who "have not been inspired" by Republican presidential nominee Sen. John McCain (Ariz.), the Matthew 25 Network -- a Christian political action committee -- began airing radio commercials this week in support of Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.), the New York Times' "

More than 60 Roman Catholic bishops in recent weeks have urged voters to make abortion their "top priority" in the upcoming presidential election, the Boston Globe reports.

The tribal council of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians tribe in North Dakota has approved a resolution that would ban abortions on the tribe's land, but it is unclear if the measure was properly approved and should be allowed to stand, the Grand Forks Herald reports.

The full 11-judge 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday heard arguments in a case, Richmond Medical Center v. Herring, on the constitutionality of a 2003 Virginia abortion ban that allows violations to be prosecuted as felonies, the AP/Washington Times reports (O'Dell, AP/Washington Times, 10/29).

Judicial appointments made by President Bush -- which account for more than a third of the federal judiciary expected to be serving when he leaves office in January -- have "transformed the nation's federal appeals courts, advancing a conservative legal revolution that began nearly three decades ago under President Ronald Reagan," the New York Times reports.

The following is a summary of selected women's health-related blogs.~ "A Stealth Attack on Privacy," Amanda Marcotte, RH Reality Check:"Anti-choicers who petulantly claim that there's no right to privacy in the Constitution are attacking many more decisions than Roe," Marcotte writes.

Plans by Fordham University to present the Fordham-Stein Ethics Prize to Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer have drawn protests from the Catholic university's alumni and the leader of the Catholic Church in New York over Breyer's support of abortion rights in Supreme Court rulings, the AP/Boston Globe reports.