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A Montana judge has temporarily blocked the state from enforcing a new ban on the type of abortion most commonly used after 15 weeks of gestation until he can hear arguments on the law next week. District Court Judge Mike Menahan issued a temporary restraining order Thursday against a law that bans the use of dilation and evacuation abortions. Republican Gov. Greg Gianforte signed the bill into law on Tuesday and it took immediate effect. (Hanson, 5/18)

Rhode Island Gov. Dan McKee (D) on Thursday signed into law on Thursday a bill that would let state funds pay for health insurance coverage for state employees and Medicaid recipients that covers abortions. “Here in Rhode Island, we will always protect a woman’s right to choose and ensure equal access to these crucial health care services,” McKee wrote on Twitter, sharing a photo of the signing. “I’m proud to sign the Equality in Abortion Coverage Act into law and include related funding in my budget proposal.” (Mueller, 5/18)

A ballot question seeking to make it more difficult to amend the Ohio Constitution was cleared for an August ballot on Thursday, and teams of Republican and Democratic lawmakers assigned to write pro and con arguments, respectively, to be presented to voters. (Smyth, 5/18)

The House Appropriations subcommittee in charge of FDA funding easily approved a fiscal 2024 spending bill Thursday that would reverse the agency's decision to allow mail-order mifepristone. The bill would also prevent HHS from banning menthol in cigarettes and from setting a maximum nicotine level in cigarettes. (Goldman, 5/19)

�������ýҕ�l Health News: Watch: 5th Circuit Judges Question Two-Decade-Old Approval Of Abortion Pill 

A three-judge panel comprising Judges James Ho and Cory Wilson, appointed by then-President Donald Trump, and Judge Jennifer Walker Elrod, appointed by then-President George W. Bush, on Wednesday appeared to support claims that the conscience and religious rights of anti-abortion physicians are harmed by the FDA’s nearly 23-year-old approval of mifepristone. (Varney, 5/18)

�������ýҕ�l Health News: �������ýҕ�l Health News' 'What the Health?': The Abortion Pill Goes Back To Court 

A three-judge appeals court panel heard testimony this week about revoking the FDA’s 22-year-old approval of a key pill used in medication abortion and miscarriage management. The judges all have track records of siding with abortion foes. Meanwhile, as the standoff over raising the federal debt ceiling continues in Washington, a major sticking point is whether to impose work requirements on recipients of Medicaid coverage. Victoria Knight of Axios, Rachel Roubein of The Washington Post, and Sandhya Raman of CQ Roll Call join �������ýҕ�l Health News chief Washington correspondent Julie Rovner to discuss these issues and more. (5/18)

Farm conditions for pigs don’t seem to have anything to do with states’ salvos in the hard-fought battle over abortion. But a new Supreme Court ruling in an animal welfare case could become a tool in states’ burgeoning efforts to restrict or expand abortion access even beyond their own borders. The case over the treatment of animals in factory farms splintered the justices Thursday, resulting in five separate opinions. ... Experts say the core issue in the case — the ability of states to take actions with clear impacts beyond their borders — is also central to the legal imbroglio over abortion. (Gerstein, 5/12)

Top anti-abortion leaders are continuing to lobby Donald Trump on a 15-week ban they believe should be the standard for the Republican Party. Their efforts come even as Trump has not only refused to embrace a ban but has framed some abortion legislation as electorally toxic. And it is being driven by a desire to avoid the politically uncomfortable spectacle of having to rebuke the man who not only delivered their movement its greatest win, but is likely to be the GOP’s presidential nominee. (McGraw and Allison, 5/18)

Medical students say strict abortion laws are driving them away from pursuing careers as doctors in states where the procedure is banned. The finding comes from a survey of third- and fourth-year medical students, conducted from August through October of last year — just after the June 2022 Supreme Court Dobbs decision that overturned Roe V. Wade, which for nearly 50 years granted the right to an abortion across the U.S. (Edwards, 5/18)

Milo Evan Dorbert, whose mother’s pregnancy tested the interpretation of Florida’s new abortion law, was born with a fatal abnormality. He lived 99 minutes. (Sellers, Simonetti and Penman, 5/19)

Senior Biden administration officials and public health leaders are warning that debt ceiling negotiations around clawing back unspent Covid-19 money would have an unintended consequence: increasing sexually-transmitted diseases. The potential cuts — one of the few seeming areas of agreement between House Republicans and the White House — could sap as much as $30 billion from state and local public health departments that are struggling to rebuild as Covid-19 wanes. Funding clawbacks would undermine work to slow the spread of syphilis, chlamydia, gonorrhea, HIV and hepatitis, and leave the country weaker in the face of future pandemics. (Ollstein, 5/19)

White House negotiators are willing to make some concessions to tighten work requirements for federal cash aid as part of a deal to raise the debt ceiling. The negotiators are narrowing in on possible changes that would further restrict access for low-income Americans to the emergency aid program known as Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, according to two people familiar with the talks, who were granted anonymity to discuss internal conversations. Republicans are also pressing the White House team to agree to expanded work requirements for some adults without children receiving food assistance, which Biden didn’t rule out in comments he made to reporters on Wednesday. (Hill, 5/18)

As millions of Americans, particularly our young people, continue to struggle with worsening mental health challenges, the White House announced on Thursday — the National Day of Mental Health Action — how the Biden administration plans to tackle the crisis. Coinciding with Mental Health Awareness Month, the new strategy involves increasing mental health staffing in schools, bolstering operations of the 988 crisis lifeline and making it easier for schools to obtain Medicaid funding. (Rudy, 5/18)

"Guns are the No. 1 killer of kids in America, and it’s within our power to stop this epidemic," Biden said in a statement. "Yet, from Columbine to Newtown to Parkland to Uvalde to Nashville and so many other shootings in between, our schools are routinely scenes of gun violence instead of the safe spaces they should be." (Wermund, 5/18)

Sen. Dianne Feinstein experienced complications from the serious bout of shingles that left her unable to return to the Senate for nearly three months, including Ramsay Hunt syndrome and encephalitis, her spokesperson Adam Russell told The Chronicle. (Stein, 5/18)

Dianne Feinstein, a Democratic senator from California, returned to the Capitol last week after spending more than two months recovering from shingles. The disease, often characterized by a painful rash, is triggered by the same virus that causes chickenpox, which stays in people’s bodies for life and, years later, can become reactivated. For Ms. Feinstein, 89, the virus also brought on a previously unreported case of encephalitis, a rare but potentially debilitating complication in which the brain swells. The condition is often caused by an infection or an immune response. (Mueller, 5/18)

An investigation into a string of suicides of U.S. Navy sailors assigned to the USS George Washington has revealed failures in the working and living conditions at naval shipyards, leading to recommendations for improvements in mental health services, food and housing. “The conditions experienced by those assigned to the USS GEORGE WASHINGTON and MARMC are not the result of any act or inaction by any single leader. Collectively, Navy senior leadership, officer and civilian, let our standards slip — and in so doing we let our people down,” said Navy Chief Adm. Michael Gilday and Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro in a memo. (Mueller, 5/18)

The ship was failing to provide many of the programs that were supposed to help the crew deal with stress. During a briefing to reporters, Adm. Daryl Caudle, the man who oversees much of the Navy's East Coast fleet, said he saw the cluster of deaths as "a 9/11-like event." (Toropin, 5/18)

National Guardsmen and reservists who retire before age 60 would be eligible for low-cost military health care plans under a bill being introduced Thursday by a bipartisan pair of senators, potentially saving those retirees thousands of dollars per year. The bill, from Sens. J.D. Vance, R-Ohio, and Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., would allow retired reserve personnel to sign up for some Tricare plans as soon as they begin receiving retirement pay, rather than having to wait until they're 60 years old, as is the case now. (Kheel, 5/18)

Women are at least twice as likely as men to be injured in Army basic training, according to data collected over six years by the service. Most of those injuries were musculoskeletal -- meaning they affect the bones, muscles, joints and tendons of female recruits. Military.com obtained the injury data as the Army is looking for ways to boost recovery for men and women moving through boot camp. (Beynon, 5/18)

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is urging people at high risk of mpox to get two doses of Bavarian Nordic's (BAVA.CO) Jynneos vaccine, based on new evidence from a U.S. study showing that the regimen is more effective at preventing infection than one shot. The study, published on Thursday, offered some of the first evidence on the efficacy of the Jynneos vaccine, which was deployed last year during a global outbreak of mpox that affected more than 30,000 people in the United States. (Leo, 5/18)

A letter published yesterday in the New England Journal of Medicine describes 16 adult cases of mpox seen in Bayelsa, Nigeria, among casual heterosexual partners, confirming that heterosexual intercourse plays a role in transmission of the virus, though not nearly to the degree that male-to-male sexual contact has. (Soucheray, 5/18)

A federal advisory committee raised questions Thursday about the safety of a proposed vaccine to protect newborns against respiratory syncytial virus or RSV, but ended up voting in favor of its approval. "This is a disease we've been trying to prevent for half a century and this is the first time we've had a chance to do it with a vaccine," said Dr. Arnold Monto, an epidemiologist at the University of Michigan School of Public Health, who voted to support the approval. (Rodriguez, 5/18)

As cruise passengers return to the seas in force following a pandemic lull, an unwelcome side effect is also back: outbreaks of gastrointestinal illness. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, so far this year there have been 11 outbreaks of vomiting and diarrhea that reach the threshold for public notification on cruise ships visiting U.S. ports. The mid-May tally has already exceeded the total number of outbreaks reported in 2019 and tied the yearly number for both 2017 and 2018. (Sampson, 5/18)

A World Health Organization (WHO) advisory group on Thursday recommended that this year's COVID-19 booster shots be updated to target one of the currently dominant XBB variants. New formulations should aim to produce antibody responses to the XBB.1.5 or XBB.1.16 variants, the advisory group said, adding that other formulations or platforms that achieve neutralizing antibody responses against XBB lineages could also be considered. (5/18)

Transplant patients who receive a heart from a COVID-19–infected donor may be at greater risk for death at 6 months and 1 year, finds a study published yesterday in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology. ... Donors were considered to have COVID-19 if they tested positive during hospitalization and then were subclassified as having active infection if they tested positive within 2 days of organ procurement or having recently resolved COVID-19 if they tested positive and then negative before procurement. There is no clear consensus on the evaluation and use of COVID-19 donor hearts for transplant, the authors said. (Van Beusekom, 5/18)

Conservative Justice Neil Gorsuch on Thursday slammed the use of emergency power during the pandemic as a mass intrusion on civil liberties. The high court on Thursday dismissed as moot a case seeking to preserve Title 42 after the pandemic emergency expired last week. The public health authority had allowed for the swift expulsion of migrants without allowing them to seek asylum. (Schonfeld, 5/18)

�������ýҕ�l Health News: Remote Work: An Underestimated Benefit For Family Caregivers 

For Aida Beltré, working remotely during the pandemic came as a relief. She was taking care of her father, now 86, who has been in and out of hospitals and rehabs after a worsening series of strokes in recent years. Working from home for a rental property company, she could handle it. In fact, like most family caregivers during the early days of covid-19, she had to handle it. Community programs for the elderly had shut down. Even when Beltré switched to a hybrid work role — meaning some days in the office, others at home — caring for her father was manageable, though never easy. (Kenen, 5/19)

Amid spotty access to semaglutide (brand names, Ozempic and Wegovy), people seeking the injectable drug for weight loss have begun ordering it from alleged doctors on TikTok, online pharmacies, medical spas, and compounding pharmacies peddling nonexistent "generic" versions of the drug. (Van Beusekom, 5/18)

Just under half of obese adolescents administered the latest in a new generation of recently approved weight-loss drugs were no longer considered to be clinically obese by the end of a 16-month trial, a study found. The findings support a small but growing body of evidence that the drug semaglutide, which goes by the brand names of Ozempic and Wegovy, can be an effective treatment option for chronic weight management for a range of ages. (Sands, 5/18)

Researchers with Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine reported yesterday that they identified what they believe is the first clinical case in the United States of a patient with an infection showing resistance to all available beta-lactam antibiotic regimens. (Dall, 5/18)

Terry Horgan, the 27-year-old patient who died eight days after receiving a CRISPR therapy custom-built for him, likely suffered a fatal innate immune response to the virus used to deliver the treatment, investigators concluded. The findings, posted late Thursday to the preprint server Medrxiv, confirmed that CRISPR, the Nobel-Prize winning genome editing tool now being used to develop treatments for a wide range of diseases, played no role in Terry’s death. (Mast, 5/18)

The Cleveland Clinic said that it implanted a dual-function cardiac device in a patient as part of a clinical trial this week, marking the first time this has been done in the world. The Clinic’s landmark surgery is a first step toward learning whether the new device can improve the quality of life for heart patients by reducing life-threatening arrhythmias and treating episodes of irregular or abnormally fast heart rates. (Washington, 5/18)

Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. plans to cut back manufacturing of generic drugs, citing low profitability, at a time when shortages are intensifying and makers of these medicines are struggling to stay in business. The Israel-based company is one of the world’s largest makers of generic drugs, but has been contending with high debt as prices shrink across the board. Some nine out of 10 prescriptions filled in the US are for generic drugs. The industry has been under increasing pressure, leading to a scarcity of crucial medicines like antibiotics and cancer treatments. (Swetlitz, 5/18)

In a case winding its way through federal court, a Broken Arrow manufacturer of dietary supplements is fighting with the federal government over millions of dollars in product that contains kratom, an herbal drug often marketed as effective for easing opioid withdrawals. Earlier this month, the U.S. Department of Justice announced that the U.S. Marshals Service, acting with investigators from the Food and Drug Administration, seized more than $3 million in kratom from Botanic Tonics LLC. (Dulaney, 5/18)

In the dark, early days of the coronavirus pandemic, Michael Toce noticed a surprising trend. As a pediatric-emergency-medicine doctor at Boston Children’s Hospital, he was seeing lots of kids who had taken too much medication. The problem wasn’t that they’d overdosed on opioids or painkillers or marijuana. Instead, they’d swallowed too much melatonin, an over-the-counter supplement used as a sleep aid. The ill effects of this mistake seemed mild at the worst—drowsiness, nausea, vomiting—but the number of kids who were affected was going up, up, up. (Stern, 5/18)

In spring 2019, a curious piece of information landed at the FBI’s Baltimore field office. An informant said that for about $17,000, a recruiter in nearby Laurel, Md., had offered to provide a diploma and a fake transcript from a Florida nursing school, along with tutoring for the nurse licensing exam — without the need to actually take courses or receive clinical training. That tip has mushroomed into an ongoing search for bogus nurses that spans all 50 states, D.C., Canada and parts of the Caribbean. It has resulted in the indictments of 25 people on wire fraud charges and a continued investigation of additional schools that may be offering the same fraudulent arrangement. Ten people have reached plea agreements with prosecutors. (Bernstein, 5/18)

Mount Sinai Hospital was ordered to pay a $127,000 fine to nurses for understaffing its neonatal intensive care unit, according to an arbitration agreement reached earlier this month. Arbitrator Timothy Taylor found that the hospital displayed a “persistent pattern” of staffing violations between mid-January and mid-April, the agreement said. The arbitration was first reported by Politico. (D'Ambrosio, 5/18)

New York is closer to making the city and its hospitals more accountable for soaring health care costs. A new proposed local law would create a committee to monitor the city’s employee-related health care expenses and disclose prices for hospital procedures. The measure could come to a vote as early as next week and save New York $2 billion a year, according to its main sponsor, City Council member Julie Menin. (Coleman-Lochner, 5/18)

Minnesota hospital and health systems, both their executives and clinicians, are rallying against nurse staffing legislation and a potential exemption for Mayo Clinic, the state’s largest provider. In April, the state Legislature passed a bill that would require each inpatient care unit of a hospital to set up committees of nurses, other direct caregivers and executives to agree on certain staffing levels or set them via arbitration. (Kacik, 5/18)

Less than two weeks after Option Care Health announced a proposed $3.6 billion acquisition of home health provider Amedisys, Addus HomeCare Chair and CEO Dirk Allison said his company is on the hunt for home health firms. “We are looking at strategic acquisitions in states like Tennessee, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Georgia where we already have a personal care platform that we can add clinical services on top of,” Allison told investors at the RBC Global Healthcare Conference in New York on Tuesday. Addus Home Care, based in Frisco, Texas, provides home health, hospice and personal care services in 22 states. (Eastabrook, 5/18)

HCA Healthcare plans to expand its footprint in Texas by acquiring 41 urgent care centers from FastMed, the company announced Thursday. The deal, expected to close this summer, includes 19 FastMed locations and 22 MedPost centers in Austin, Dallas, El Paso, Houston and San Antonio. The Nashville, Tennessee-based health system and the Raleigh, North Carolina-based clinic operator didn't disclose the terms of the agreement. (Hudson, 5/18)

When cyclist Alison Tetrick joined the sport’s professional ranks, she received the perks that come with the job — new bikes and clothing included. But she could never get comfortable on the bike saddles. After several years, Tetrick suffered so much damage to her genital area that she eventually resorted to surgery to trim excess skin from her labia. Tetrick wasn’t alone — the sad truth was that many of her female cycling peers had also required the procedure. Since Tetrick’s experience about a decade ago, several cycling companies have developed women-specific saddles and cycling shorts, as amateur athlete and journalist Christine Yu writes in her new book “Up to Speed: The Groundbreaking Science of Women Athletes.” But Tetrick’s case is representative of a massive gap in science and exercise medicine, which has long neglected the study of women. (Loudin, 5/19)

�������ýҕ�l Health News: When Older Parents Resist Help Or Advice, Use These Tips To Cope

It was a regrettable mistake. But Kim Sylvester thought she was doing the right thing at the time. Her 80-year-old mother, Harriet Burkel, had fallen at her home in Raleigh, North Carolina, fractured her pelvis, and gone to a rehabilitation center to recover. It was only days after the death of Burkel’s 82-year-old husband, who’d moved into a memory care facility three years before. (Graham, 5/19 )

A Senate committee approved a bill Thursday that would allow pregnant Texans to remain on Medicaid for 12 months after they give birth. The bill has already cleared the House, so the next step, if the chamber chooses, is to send it to the Senate floor for a vote. Texas currently offers low-income mothers Medicaid coverage for two months after pregnancy. Last session, the House voted to extend that to 12 months, but the Senate reduced it to six months. (Klibanoff, 5/18)

The Dallas doctor who led Texas’ most prominent medical program for transgender youth is leaving Texas as legislators get within one step of banning gender-affirming medical treatments for minors. Dr. Ximena Lopez said she is moving to California. She will be finishing her care at UT Southwestern on July 31, according to the medical center’s website. (Wolf, 5/18)

After hiring a plastic surgeon with expertise in “bottom surgeries” as its new gender care surgical director, Intermountain Health will not provide that care for transgender adults diagnosed with gender dysphoria. (Harkins, 5/18)

This month's rush of bills, certain to attract court challenges, has become central to the Republican agenda in statehouses across the country and inflamed the so-called culture war in the United States that also encompasses abortion, gun rights and school curricula. ... To many political observers, these measures offer a preview of the 2024 elections, with Republicans portraying Democrats as out of touch on issues of sex and religion, and Democrats calling Republicans extremist and anti-democratic. (Trotta, 5/18)

Lead is pervasive in the drinking water of child care centers across California, with almost 1 in 4 child care facilities testing above legally allowed levels in the state, per new data released by the California Department of Social Services. (Hao, 5/18)

California lawmakers blocked two big environmental bills Thursday: One that would have ramped up the state’s emissions targets, and another that would have made oil companies liable for the health problems of people who live close to oil wells. They are among the hundreds of bills that did not survive the Legislature’s suspense file, a mysterious process where lawmakers decide — with no explanation — which bills will get a chance to become law later this year and which ones should not move forward. (Austin, 5/19)

A Washington state woman who has repeatedly refused a judge’s order to take medication for tuberculosis remains at large weeks after a rarely used arrest warrant was issued, authorities said. The woman, identified in court documents as V.N., has a court hearing scheduled for Friday in Pierce County, south of Seattle, but it’s unclear if she’ll appear. (Stelloh, 5/18)

Minnesota is just one Senate vote and a governor's signature away from legalizing recreational marijuana for adults. The DFL-controlled House voted 73-57 to legalize marijuana on Thursday night. The Senate could take up the bill as early as Friday. Pending Senate approval, the bill will head to the desk of Democratic Gov. Tim Walz, who's pledged to sign it. (Faircloth, 5/18)

Four more former professional soccer players have been diagnosed with chronic traumatic encephalopathy. ... Researchers say heading the ball is dangerous and should be phased out, especially for children. The new diagnoses come as soccer officials gather in Chicago for a Head Injury Summit. Some of the ex-players’ families say hearing from those who suffered from the disease is a key to preventing and treating it. (Golen, 5/16)

A growing number of scientific studies done over the past 15 years have found links between repeated head trauma and chronic traumatic encephalopathy, a degenerative brain disease. Many of those have come via the C.T.E. Center at Boston University, which has examined the brains of hundreds of former N.F.L. players and other athletes and military personnel. (Belson, 5/18)

Looking to improve your mental health? Pay attention to birds. Two studies published last year in Scientific Reports said that seeing or hearing birds could be good for our mental well-being. (Sima, 5/18)

A dozen counselors on what it’s really like to sit in the other armchair. (Wang, 5/17)

People are lonely the world over. But as far back as the early 19th century, when the word “loneliness” began to be used in its current context in American life, some were already asking the question: Do the contours of American society — that emphasis on individualism, that spreading out with impunity over a vast, sometimes outsized landscape — encourage isolation and alienation? Or is that, like other chunks of the American story, a premise built on myths? (Anthony, 5/16)

Every day, Joseph Dituri wakes up around 5 a.m., walks to his work station and basks in the sun that hovers above him. This sun, however, is a yellow pillow with a smiling face in the center. Dituri hung it on his wall to remind him of the real sun, which he hasn’t seen in more than 75 days. Dituri, a hyperbaric medicine researcher and associate professor at the University of South Florida, has been living in an underwater pod in Key Largo, Fla., since March 1. He’s exploring whether living underwater is possible through daily tests on his brain, heart, lungs and blood. (Melnick, 5/16)

It’s a dark time for therapists treating adolescents in despair. But some things do work. (Jones, 5/17)

It’s hard to keep track of when to start getting screened for health issues. Here’s a guide. (Reddy, 5/18)

Raising children in your 40s can be wrenching, rewarding, complicated and sublime in all the ways parenthood is, but it also comes with its own triumphs and challenges. The Times recently asked mothers who had children after 40 to share their experiences, and nearly 1,200 responded. Here are seven of their stories. (Blum, 5/14)

China’s push to expand its economic reach is driving deforestation and escalating the risk of a bat virus infecting humanity, a Reuters data analysis shows. (McNeill, Nelson, Martell and Ovaska, 5/16)

Advances in software, hardware, semiconductors and medical research have put a virtual laboratory on the wrists of millions of consumers around the world, improving health and saving lives. Yet one of the oldest and most fundamental metrics — blood pressure — has proven too tricky to capture with digital technology. (Tim Culpan, 5/18)

Last week, the influential U.S. Preventive Services Task Force proposed a revision to their breast cancer screening guidelines to lower the age of starting mammograms from 50 to 40. This is an important change that, if adopted, would increase early breast-cancer detection. (Leana S. Wen, 5/19)

I've experienced five pregnancies: three ended in miscarriage. Each time, because of Roe v. Wade, I trusted I would get the medical care I needed. But now that Republicans used their veto-proof majority in the North Carolina General Assembly to enact severe abortion restrictions, many women and girls here will be forced to remain pregnant against their will and/or face near insurmountable hurdles in order to get reproductive health care. (Natasha Marcus, 5/18)

We’re in the midst of a serious teen mental health crisis. The number of teenagers and young adults with clinical depression more than doubled between 2011 and 2021. The suicide rate for teenagers nearly doubled from 2007 to 2019, and tripled for 10- to 14-year- olds in particular. (Ezra Klein, 5/19)