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Florida Governor Ron DeSantis on Wednesday signed into law a bill that bans gender-affirming medical care such as puberty blockers or hormone therapy for transgender youth, and also enacts obstacles for adults to access treatment. (Trotta, 5/17)

Over the opposition of Democrats and the loud protests at the Capitol this month, the Texas Legislature voted on Wednesday to approve a bill banning hormone and puberty blocking treatments, as well as surgeries for transgender children. The state is poised to become the largest state to ban transition medical care for minors. The final version of the bill included a limited exemption for those transgender children who were already receiving medical treatment before the bill’s passage, though it also required those patients to “wean” themselves off the medications over an unspecified period of time. (Montgomery and Goodman, 5/17)

A hospital that serves more than 14,500 patients in rural northern Maine would have shut its doors in 2023 had significant changes not improved its financial situation, according to the CEO. Northern Maine Medical Center CEO Jeff Zewe said that a group commissioned by the hospital to study its finances told the board that if it kept up standard operating procedure, the hospital would not survive beyond Christmas of 2023. The comment was made during a Wednesday press conference held at the hospital. (Potila, 5/17)

Minnesota settled its lawsuit against e-cigarette maker Juul Labs and tobacco giant Altria for $60.5 million, Attorney General Keith Ellison announced Wednesday, saying the total is significantly higher per capita than any other state that sued Juul over youth vaping and marketing practices. The state’s lawsuit was the first and still the only one of thousands of cases nationwide against the e-cigarette maker to reach trial. It settled just ahead of closing arguments last month, but the terms had to be kept confidential for 30 days until the formal papers were filed publicly with the court. (Karnowski, 5/17)

The Supreme Court declined to immediately block Illinois’s assault weapons and high-capacity magazine bans, leaving them in place, for now. A gun rights group and gun shop owner asked the justices to pause the law’s enforcement by intervening in the case ahead of an appeals court’s final ruling. The lawsuit also challenges an ordinance in Naperville, Ill., that bans the sale of assault rifles. (Schonfeld, 5/17)

�������ýҕ�l Health News: Thousands Face Medicaid Whiplash In South Dakota And North Carolina 

Until recently, Jonathon Murray relied on Medicaid to pay for treatments for multiple health conditions, including chronic insomnia. Murray, a 20-year-old restaurant worker from the college town of Brookings, South Dakota, said that without his medication, he would stay awake for several nights in a row. “I’d probably not be able to work that much because I’d be tired but couldn’t fall asleep,” he said. (Zionts, 5/18)