Two court rulings Monday bolstered abortion opponents, with the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that Texas could ban emergency abortions if they violate state law and Georgia's top court allowing enforcement of the abortion ban in that state.
The rulings are the latest in a legal saga that's been playing out a few rulings at a time across the U.S. for the past two years — since the nation's top court overturned Roe v. Wade, ended the nationwide right to abortion, and opened the door to bans and restrictions, as well as the new legal fights that followed.
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FILE - In this March 30, 2021 file photo, anti-abortion rights demonstrators gather in the rotunda at the Capitol while the Senate debated anti-abortion bills in Austin, Texas. (Jay Janner/Austin American-Statesman via AP, File)
FILE - Protesters line the street around the front of the Nebraska Capitol during an Abortion Rights Rally, July 4, 2022, in Lincoln, Neb. (Kenneth Ferriera/Lincoln Journal Star via AP, File)
Trump supporters who turned out to protest against abortion follow the bus at the start of the "Reproductive Freedom Bus Tour" by the campaign of Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris and running mate Gov. Tim Walz, Tuesday, Sept. 3, 2024, in Boynton Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)
Anti-abortion activists rally outside of the U.S. Supreme Court, Thursday, June 20, 2024, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mariam Zuhaib)
FILE - An. Abortion rights demonstrator holds a sign during a rally on May 14, 2022, in Chattanooga, Tenn. (AP Photo/Ben Margot, File)
FILE - Arizona abortion-rights supporters gather for a news conference prior to delivering over 800,000 petition signatures to the capitol to get abortion rights on the November general election ballot Wednesday, July 3, 2024, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin, File)
Meanwhile, abortion is also a top concern for voters ahead of next month's elections, including in nine states where it's on the ballot directly in the form of state constitutional amendments.
Here are five key things to know about the latest abortion developments across the country.
In the fallout of the 2022 ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, President Joe Biden's administration told hospitals that federal law required them to provide abortion services when the life of the pregnant person was at risk.
Texas sued over the policy, saying the federal government could not mandate the right to abortions that would violate the state's ban at all stages of pregnancy, with exceptions to protect the health and life of the woman. A federal appeals court sided with the state, ruling in January that the administration had overstepped its authority.
On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court let that ruling stand. The justices did not detail their reasoning.
A week after a Georgia judge blocked the state's ban on abortion after the first six weeks or so of pregnancy, the state Supreme Court on Monday put it back into place — at least for now.
The state's top court said the ban on abortion once cardiac activity can be detected, generally about six weeks into pregnancy and often before women realize they're pregnant, can be enforced while it considers the state's appeal of the September ruling.
It's not clear how many abortions were provided in the state that could not have been under the ban during the week the rules were relaxed. Some clinics said they were willing to provide abortions after six weeks, though.
The ruling meant that four states again bar abortion in most cases after about six weeks of pregnancy.
In another late-September development, a North Dakota ruling from earlier in the month striking down that state's abortion ban became official.
That means that 13 states are now enforcing bans on abortion at all stages of pregnancy, instead of 14.
But the impact of the ruling in North Dakota is limited to hospitals in the nation's second-least populous state.
The only clinic that provided abortions in the state moved from Fargo to nearby Moorhead, Minnesota, after the Dobbs ruling was made and North Dakota's ban took effect.
Court rulings are not the only place where abortion policy decisions are being made.
Voters in nine states are determining whether to add the right to abortion to their state constitutions.
In Missouri and South Dakota, the measures would undo current bans on abortion at all stages of pregnancy. In Florida, it would lift a ban that kicks in after six weeks.
Nebraska has competing measures on the ballot. One would create the right to abortion until fetal viability, generally considered to be around 23 or 24 weeks into pregnancy. The other would enshrine the current ban that kicks in after 12 weeks.
In Arizona, Colorado, Maryland and Montana, it would enshrine, and in some cases expand, abortion rights. Nevada's vote would, too, but to take effect, the measure would have to pass a second time, in 2026.
Additionally, New York voters will decide on an amendment that would bar discrimination on the basis of pregnancy status, though it does not mention abortion by name.
Abortion is a major issue in elections for office, too — including the presidential race.
Vice President Kamala Harris has been focusing on abortion rights in her presidential campaign. She says she wants to “reinstate the protections of Roe”. She talked about it on the “Call Her Daddy” podcast this week and in a speech last month in Georgia.
Former President Donald Trump, the GOP nominee, has taken credit for nominating Supreme Court justices who overturned Roe. He says that the issue should be up to the states and, recently, that he would veto a nationwide abortion ban if Congress passed one. He has also said he would vote against the Florida ballot measure, though he has also criticized it as too restrictive.
FILE - In this March 30, 2021 file photo, anti-abortion rights demonstrators gather in the rotunda at the Capitol while the Senate debated anti-abortion bills in Austin, Texas. (Jay Janner/Austin American-Statesman via AP, File)
FILE - Protesters line the street around the front of the Nebraska Capitol during an Abortion Rights Rally, July 4, 2022, in Lincoln, Neb. (Kenneth Ferriera/Lincoln Journal Star via AP, File)
Trump supporters who turned out to protest against abortion follow the bus at the start of the "Reproductive Freedom Bus Tour" by the campaign of Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris and running mate Gov. Tim Walz, Tuesday, Sept. 3, 2024, in Boynton Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)
Anti-abortion activists rally outside of the U.S. Supreme Court, Thursday, June 20, 2024, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mariam Zuhaib)
FILE - An. Abortion rights demonstrator holds a sign during a rally on May 14, 2022, in Chattanooga, Tenn. (AP Photo/Ben Margot, File)
FILE - Arizona abortion-rights supporters gather for a news conference prior to delivering over 800,000 petition signatures to the capitol to get abortion rights on the November general election ballot Wednesday, July 3, 2024, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin, File)
NEW YORK (AP) — Welcome toBeyoncé country. When it comes to the 2025 Grammy Award nominations, “Cowboy Carter” rules the nation. She leads the nods with 11, bringing her career total to 99 nominations. That makes her the most nominated artist in Grammy history.
“Cowboy Carter” is up for album and country album of the year, and “Texas Hold ’Em” is nominated for record, song and country song of the year. She also received nominations in a wide swath of genres, including pop, country, Americana and melodic rap performance categories.
This is her first time receiving nominations in the country and Americana categories. Previously, she and her husband Jay-Z were tied for most career nominations, at 88.
If Beyoncé wins the album of the year, she’ll become the first Black woman to do so in the 21st century. Lauryn Hill last won in 1999 for “The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill,” joining Natalie Cole and Whitney Houston as the only Black women to take home the Grammys’ top prize.
Post Malone also received his first ever nominations in the country categories this year, having released his debut country album “F-1 Trillion" in August. That one is up for country album and “I Had Some Help,” his collaboration with Morgan Wallen, is nominated for country song and country duo/group performance. They are Wallen’s first ever Grammy nominations.
Malone is just behind Beyoncé, with seven nominations, tied with Billie Eilish, Kendrick Lamar and Charli XCX, who earned her first nominations as a solo artist.
Lamar’s ubiquitous diss track released during his feud with Drake, “Not Like Us,” is nominated for record and song of the year, rap song, music video as well as best rap performance. He has two simultaneous entries in the latter category, a career first: Future & Metro Boomin featuring Lamar, “Like That” is up for best rap performance and best rap song.
This is his third time receiving two simultaneous nominations for best rap song.
Taylor Swift and first-time nominees Sabrina Carpenter and Chappell Roan boast of six nominations each.
Last year, women artists dominated the major categories. This year, that continues somewhat, but the main trend seems to be a variance of genre. In the album of the year category, alongside “Cowboy Carter” is André 3000’s new age, alt-jazz “New Blue Sun” and multi-instrumentalist Jacob Collier’s “Djesse Vol. 4.” Rising pop stars Carpenter and Roan round it out, with “Short n’ Sweet” and “The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess” respectively, as well as Swift’s “The Tortured Poets Department,” Eilish’s “Hit Me Hard and Soft,” and Charli XCX’s rave-ready “BRAT.”
Eilish is the only artist to have her first three albums become nominated for album of the year.
Last year, Swift won album of the year for “Midnights,” breaking the record for most wins in the category with four. This year, she becomes the first ever woman to seven career nominations in the category.
“The breadth and the variety of genres represented in the general field feels new and really exciting,” says the Recording Academy CEO and President Harvey Mason jr. He credits an active and evolving voting body for its success. “We’ve been very intentional in how we looked at and tried to rebalance our membership. So not just gender or people of color, different racial makeup, but also genre equity and trying to make sure that all different types of music in different regions and different locations are being represented in every way possible.”
Only recordings commercially released in the U.S. between Sept. 16, 2023 through Aug. 30, 2024 were eligible for nominations. The final round of Grammy voting, which determines its winners, will take place Dec. 12 through January 3.
In the best new artist category, Carpenter and Roan will go head-to-head, alongside Benson Boone, Doechii, Khruangbin, RAYE, Shaboozey and Teddy Swims.
In the song of the year category, Beyoncé is joined by Eilish with “Birds of a Feather,” Swift and Post Malone with “Fortnight,” Roan’s “Good Luck, Babe!”, Carpenter’s “Please Please Please,” Lamar’s “Not Like Us,” Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars’ “Die With A Smile,” and Shaboozey’s “A Bar Song (Tipsy).”
Shaboozey is also a first-time nominee. His “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” is the biggest song of the year, having spent more weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 than any other — it is so popular, a remix of the track is also up for remixed recording.
Elsewhere, Shaboozey is nominated in the melodic rap performance category for his feature on Beyoncé’s “SPAGHETTII.” Linda Martell, the first commercially-successful Black woman musician in country, is also featured on the song, delivering the 83-year-old artist her first Grammy nomination.
For record of the year, “Texas Hold ’Em” will compete against Swift and Post Malone’s “Fortnight,” Eilish’s “Birds of a Father,” Lamar’s “Not Like Us,” Roan’s “Good Luck, Babe!”, Carpenter’s “Espresso,” Charli XCX’s “360,” and the Beatles last new song, the AI-assisted “Now and Then.”
“We’re trying to make sure we’re keeping up with how music creators and our community are using technology. And in this case, AI enhanced the record and allowed it to be eligible in the categories that it was eligible in,” Mason jr explains.
So, what’s missing? Like last year, there’s a huge dearth of Latin music — the fastest growing streaming genre in the United States — across the board, and no representation in the major categories. There are also only four entries in the best Música Mexicana album category, despite it also being one of the fastest growing genres.
And K-pop, too, seems to be absent. There are no nominations for the BTS members who’ve released solo material this year: RM’s “Right Place, Wrong Person,” J-Hope’s “Hope on the Street, Vol. 1,” and Jimin’s “Muse.” As a boy band, BTS has received five nominations across their career.
“I definitely see room for improvement across many genres and we are continuing to invite people to be a part of the academy,” Mason jr. says. “Without the right representation we don’t get the right results. When I say right, I mean reflective and representative of what’s happening in music today. So, the work continues.”
The 2025 Grammy Awards will air Feb. 2 live on CBS and Paramount+ from the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles.
This combination of photos shows top Grammy Awards nominees, top row from left, Beyonce, Charli XCX, Billie Eilish, Kendrick Lamar, bottom row from left, Post Malone, Sabrina Carpenter, Chappell Roan and Taylor Swift. (AP Photo)
FILE - Taylor Swift performs during "The Eras Tour," Monday, Aug. 7, 2023, at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello, File)
FILE - Chappell Roan arrives at the MTV Video Music Awards on Wednesday, Sept. 11, 2024, at UBS Arena in Elmont, N.Y. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP, File)
FILE - Sabrina Carpenter performs during the Times Square New Year's Eve celebration, Sunday, Dec. 31, 2023, in New York. (Photo by Andy Kropa/Invision/AP, File)
FILE - Charli XCX appears at the Mugler H&M global launch event in New York on April 19, 2023. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP, File)
FILE - Post Malone performs a medley at the 57th Annual CMA Awards on Wednesday, Nov. 8, 2023, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV, File)
FILE - Kendrick Lamar performs during the Festival d'ete de Quebec in Quebec City, Canada on July 7, 2017. (Photo by Amy Harris/Invision/AP, File)
FILE - Billie Eilish appears at the 66th annual Grammy Awards in Los Angeles on Feb. 4, 2024. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP, File)
FILE - Beyonce appears at a campaign event for Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris in Houston, on Oct. 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File)
FILE - Grammy Awards are displayed at the Grammy Museum Experience at Prudential Center in Newark, N.J. on Oct. 10, 2017. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez, File)
FILE - A view of a Grammy statue appears in the press room at the 65th annual Grammy Awards on Sunday, Feb. 5, 2023, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, File)