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Gov. Roy Cooper’s weekend veto of new abortion restrictions will test the mettle of Republican vote-wranglers in the state Senate and House of Representatives who say that they have the necessary supermajorities in both chambers for an override. Cooper wielded his veto stamp to much fanfare on Saturday morning during a sometimes-raucous rally on Bicentennial Mall, the public space between the Capitol and the Legislative Building in downtown Raleigh. (Blythe and Crumpler, 5/15)

Montana’s Supreme Court ruled unanimously Friday that advanced-practice registered nurses can continue to provide abortion care in the state, likely setting up legal clashes with the 2023 Legislature, which passed restrictive laws saying only physicians can perform abortions. The state failed to prove that an abortion performed by a family nurse practitioner or certified nurse-midwife presents more risk to the patient than abortions provided by physicians or physician assistants, according to the opinion written by Justice Laurie McKinnon. (Hanson, 5/12)

Kansas’ Democratic governor on Friday vetoed Republican legislation that would have provided a financial boost to anti-abortion pregnancy centers and prevented officials fighting outbreaks of contagious diseases from prohibiting public gatherings or ordering infected people to isolate themselves. The two measures were part of a wave of conservative policies passed by GOP-controlled state legislatures this year, including ones in Kansas rolling back transgender rights and establishing new restrictions on abortion providers. But Gov. Laura Kelly’s two vetoes will stand because lawmakers have adjourned for the year, barring any attempt at overriding them. (Hanna, 5/12)

Instituting a federal abortion ban is not “realistic,” Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley said Sunday. “I’m not going to lie to the American people. Nothing’s going to happen if we don’t get 60 votes in the Senate. We’re not even close to that on the Republican or the Democrat side.” Haley said on CBS’ “Face the Nation,” when pressed about what kind of limits on abortion she would seek if elected president. (Garrity, 5/14)

�������ýҕ�l Health News: Journalists Give Status Reports On The ‘Personhood’ Debate And The HIV Epidemic

�������ýҕ�l Health News Midwest correspondent Bram Sable-Smith discussed personhood laws in Missouri and beyond on “Texas Standard” and KCUR’s “Kansas City Today” on May 11. He discussed the expansion of personhood laws also on KMOX’s “Total Information AM” on May 8. (5/13)

Planned Parenthood is calling for the major reform of the federal judiciary less than a year after the fall of Roe v. Wade, including expanding the Supreme Court and adding term limits. Driving the news: The organization is also demanding an end to single-judge divisions, such as the Amarillo division in the Northern Texas District Court, where its sole judge, Matthew Kacsmaryk, issued a ruling halting the Food and Drug Administration's approval of a widely used abortion pill. (González, 5/14)

The legal battle over the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) approval of the abortion pill mifepristone could undermine a drug approval process considered to be the “gold standard” around the world. With oral arguments in the Texas lawsuit set to begin next week, the implications of how the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals rules are far-reaching. (Meyn and Choi, 5/14)

International progress on maternal and infant health is stagnating, the World Health Organization suggests in a report. Agency officials cited “extraordinarily high” rates of preventable maternal deaths, stillbirths and newborn deaths in a document released this month. In 2020 alone, the agency reports, a combined 4.5 million deaths occurred among mothers and infants, including 290,000 maternal deaths, 1.9 million stillbirths and 2.3 million newborn deaths worldwide. (Blakemore, 5/14)

When Melissa Davis was a pregnant Black teenager in Baltimore more than 30 years ago, she felt that no one was interested in making sure she had an ideal birth experience. When Davis went to a hospital in the 32nd week of her pregnancy explaining that she was in labor, doctors and nurses wouldn’t believe her, she said. Hours later, she gave birth to her son, who was born blue from lack of oxygen and rushed to a NICU. After the delivery, Davis was left on a bed in a hallway for six hours. (Moyer, 5/14)

Kenyatta Coleman walked into her doctor’s office in February excited for her ultrasound. For 30 weeks, Coleman’s unborn child had developed normally. She decided to name her Denver and celebrate with a shower the next month. But all of Coleman’s plans changed that day. The ultrasound showed the fetus had brain abnormalities and an enlarged heart. Doctors in Baton Rouge diagnosed the unborn baby with a vein of Galen malformation, a rare pre-birth condition, and a 1 percent chance of survival. (Melnick, 5/12)

�������ýҕ�l Health News: New Mexico Program To Reduce Maternity Care Deserts In Rural Areas Fights For Survival 

Thirteen weeks into her pregnancy, 29-year-old Cloie Davila was so “pukey” and nauseated that she began lovingly calling her baby “spicy.” Davila was sick enough that staffers at the local hospital gave her 2 liters of IV fluids and prescribed a daily regimen of vitamins and medication. This will be Davila’s third child and she hopes the nausea means it’s another girl. (Tribble, 5/15)

President Biden and Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) are set to meet for another round of debt ceiling talks this week, as a deal over raising the borrowing limit remains at a stalemate. This week’s meeting — which has not been formally announced yet — comes after a gathering scheduled for Friday at the White House between the president and congressional leaders was postponed. It will be the second meeting of the principals this month: Biden huddled with the top four Capitol Hill figures last Tuesday. (Schnell, 5/15)

With the odds of a U.S. debt default increasing, Social Security advocates warn beneficiaries they should be prepared in case their payments are interrupted. ... The impasse has placed the U.S. in a precarious financial position, and leaves some of the most vulnerable Americans at risk. Wile, 5/13)

If Joe Biden and House Republicans fail to reach a debt deal, the crisis could get tossed to the Supreme Court — where it would scramble the usual priorities of the court’s conservatives. The court’s current approach to most cases is overwhelmingly pro-market and business-friendly. The justices would be wary of stoking economic calamity. (Swan, 5/14)

Social Security recipients shouldn’t expect 2024’s cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) to be as significant as 2023’s, despite warnings that beneficiaries are losing their purchasing power. “The 2024 COLA could be around 3.1%,” Mary Johnson, the Social Security and Medicare policy analyst for the Senior Citizens League, said in a news release issued last week. (Bartiromo, 5/14)

To train more Black doctors, the federal government needs to bolster funding and make more training slots available for historically Black medical schools, leaders of those universities told U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders on Friday. “Our HBCU medical schools are the backbone of training Black doctors in this country.” Dr. Hugh Mighty, Howard University’s senior vice president of health affairs, said at a hearing in Atlanta. (Amy, 5/12)

The mother of a 17-year-old Honduran migrant who died in U.S. custody said Saturday her son had epilepsy but showed no signs of being seriously ill before he left for the United States. The death of Ángel Eduardo Maradiaga Espinoza at a holding center in Safety Harbor, Florida, on Wednesday underscored concerns about a strained immigration system as the Biden administration ends asylum restrictions known as Title 42. (Gonzalez, 5/14)

The Food and Drug Administration on Friday blocked 10 companies from marketing or distributing 6,500 flavored e-liquid and e-cigarette products, part of its campaign against tobacco products being marketed to youths. The agency said the product applications covered a variety of flavored e-cigarettes, including some with flavors such as Citrus and Strawberry Cheesecake, as well as Cool Mint and Menthol. The FDA said the companies in question did not provide sufficient evidence that marketing the products would be appropriate for public health. (Werner, 5/12)

The Food and Drug Administration has approved a once-a-day pill for dealing with uncomfortable hot flashes brought on by menopause. The new drug, Veozah (fezolinetant), differs from the traditional treatment of boosting the hormones estrogen and progestin to reduce menopause symptoms, which include sweating, flushing and chills. Developed by Astellas Pharma, Veozah blocks a chemical in the brain called neurokinin B (NKB), which regulates body temperature. (Snider, 5/13)

In a split vote, advisers to the Food and Drug Administration recommended that the agency approve the first gene therapy for Duchenne muscular dystrophy, the most common form of the genetic illness. The vote, 8 to 6, came after a day of testimony from speakers for Sarepta Therapeutics, the maker of the gene therapy called SRP-9001, FDA scientists and families whose children have Duchenne muscular dystrophy. The question before the panel was whether the benefits for the treatment outweigh the risks. (Hensley and Stein, 5/12)

Wide coverage of Alzheimer's drug Leqembi would raise future costs for the U.S. Medicare health plan by $2 billion to $5 billion a year, according to a study led by researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Leqembi, sold by partners Eisai Co Ltd and Biogen Inc at an annual list price of $26,500, was approved this year under the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's accelerated pathway. Trial results later showed it slowed the rate of cognitive decline by 27% compared with a placebo in patients with early disease. (Beasley, 5/12)

When Exondys 51 was approved to treat Duchenne muscular dystrophy, a deadly disease that puts kids in wheelchairs by the time they are teenagers, there was no proof the drug actually slowed the disease. That was seven years ago. The company still hasn’t provided conclusive data to this day. (Langreth, Rutherford, John Milton and Campbell, 5/14)

In the early days of the Covid pandemic, gravely ill patients began to fill America’s hospitals. Hospitals ran short of essential treatment medications and were unable to source those drugs from manufacturers or from the outsourcing facilities that had been authorized by Congress in 2013 to “fill the gap” in such situations. At the urging of the Alliance for Pharmacy Compounding, the trade association I lead, the Food and Drug Administration in April 2020 issued temporary guidance allowing traditional compounding pharmacies, within tight regulatory guardrails, to prepare 13 Covid drugs from pure ingredients to meet hospitals’ urgent need. (Brunner, 5/15)

When gastroenterologists learned in March that UnitedHealthcare plans to barricade many colonoscopies behind a controversial and complicated process known as prior authorization, their emotions cycled rapidly between fear, shock, and outrage. The change, which the health insurer will implement on June 1, means that any United member seeking surveillance and diagnostic colonoscopies to detect cancer will first need approval from United — or else have to pay out of pocket. (Chen, 5/15)

UnitedHealthcare and Phoenix Children’s Hospital are embroiled in a bitter contract dispute that would lock out families and children from care at the hospital by June if the two sides don’t come to a new agreement. And at least according to the hospital, the fight isn’t over prices, which is the traditional sticking point. (Herman, 5/15)

�������ýҕ�l Health News: ER Doctors Vow To Pursue Case Against Envision Even In Bankruptcy

If Envision Healthcare files for bankruptcy, a group of emergency room doctors would seek permission to continue their federal lawsuit that claims the private equity-backed company is violating California’s ban on corporate control of medical practices. “I anticipate that we would ask the bankruptcy judge to let our case proceed,” said David Millstein, an attorney representing the Milwaukee-based American Academy of Emergency Medicine Physician Group. “Among other things, Envision’s practices violate the law, are continuing, and need to be addressed.” Still, the future of the lawsuit is uncertain since it’s unclear how a judge might rule. (Wolfson, 5/12)

Workers at five HCA Healthcare facilities in California have voted to authorize a five-day strike as the two sides continue contract negotiations. The strike, set to start May 22, would involve around 3,000 SEIU-UHW members working at HCA’s Good Samaritan Hospital and its Regional Medical Center in San Jose; Los Robles Medical Center in Thousand Oaks; West Hills Hospital in West Hills; and Riverside Community Hospital in Riverside. (Devereaux, 5/12)

�������ýҕ�l Health News: As More Hospitals Create Police Forces, Critics Warn Of Pitfalls 

When Destiny heard screams, she raced to a hospital room where she saw a patient assaulting a care technician. As a charge nurse at Northeast Georgia Health System, she was trained to de-escalate violent situations. But that day in spring 2021, as Destiny intervened, for several minutes the patient punched, kicked, and bit her. And by the time a team of security guards and other nurses could free her, the patient had ripped out chunks of Destiny’s hair. (Rayasam, 5/15)

The impending closure of the obstetrics unit at Maine’s northernmost hospital could be disastrous for patients who will have to seek care elsewhere, according to current and former staff members. Northern Maine Medical Center in Fort Kent announced this week that it will close its obstetrics unit on May 26. The nonprofit hospital cited a decline in maternity patients and a lack of physicians to maintain services. (Potila, 5/14)

Alaska Regional Hospital has applied with the state for approval to build an $18 million freestanding emergency department in South Anchorage by the end of next year. It’s not the first time the hospital has applied to build a satellite emergency facility in Anchorage, which would be the first of its kind in Alaska. (DeMarban, 5/14)

The stream of international nurses coming to work in the United States could soon slow to a trickle because of a backlog of green card petitions at the State Department. The department announced in its May bulletin it moved the cut-off date for visa eligibility to June 1, 2022 — meaning only those who filed petitions before that date will be able to continue with their applications this fiscal year — because of soaring demand. Anyone who filed a green card petition in the past year, which could include thousands of nurses, won’t be able to proceed with their applications. (Hooper, 5/14)

When Kira, of Southborough, decided to undergo surgery to remove her fallopian tubes, she encountered a "subtle dismissive" response from her local obstetrician-gynecologist. "I felt like he was listening to me when I said, 'This is why I want the surgery,' but there was a sense that he was humoring me," said Kira, now a master of public health student at Boston University. When she made her surgery request at age 21, the surgeon advised her to "take some time to think about it" and return for consultation after graduation. (Yu, 5/15)

At a news conference Friday at the Washington, D.C., chapter of a nonprofit that provides housing and employment assistance to veterans, Democrats on the House Veterans Affairs Committee and advocates for homeless veterans warned that fewer veterans will be able to find help now that emergency authorities have ended and called on Republicans to move forward with a bill to renew the aid. "The rate that we receive for servicing a homeless veteran went from, last night, $164.67 to $64.52," said Clifton Lewis, executive director of U.S. Vets D.C., where the press conference was held. "How can you provide services to a veteran with just $64.52? Housing, food, case management services -- all the things that we do to service homeless veterans." (Kheel, 5/12)

Multiple studies have shown that in rare cases, teen and young adult males have developed myocarditis after getting ​​the mRNA COVID-19 vaccine — and now new research published in the journal Science Immunology sheds some light on potential causes. Scientists from Yale University School of Medicine in New Haven, Connecticut, conducted tests on a group of 23 patients with vaccine-associated myocarditis (an inflammation of the heart muscle) and/or pericarditis (a swelling and irritation of the membrane surrounding the heart). (Rudy, 5/12)

Obesity accelerates the loss of COVID-19 vaccine-induced neutralizing antibody capacity, concludes a University of Cambridge study published yesterday in Nature Medicine. The researchers used the Early Pandemic Evaluation and Enhanced Surveillance of COVID-19 platform to evaluate the relationship between body mass index (BMI) and infection-related hospitalization and death among 3.6 million adults in Scotland. Participants had received a second primary vaccine dose or a first booster dose of Pfizer/BioNTech or AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccine from December 8, 2020, to March 19, 2022. (Van Beusekom, 5/12)

Estimates show that more than 65 million worldwide have the condition, which encompasses a wide range of symptoms that are worsened or appear after initial SARS-CoV-2 infection. But three years after the first people with persistent symptoms were documented, there is no biomarker for the disease — no test or swab that can diagnose someone with Long COVID. A group of researchers is looking to change that. (Oza, Ramirez, Kwong, Spitzer, Cirino and McCoy, 5/15)

State Health Commissioner Dr. Kristina Box, who oversaw Indiana’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, will retire at month’s end after more than five years in the post, officials said Friday. (5/12)

Though the rise of remote work has been praised for providing greater work/life balance, many parents are finding that being away from the office can also have serious drawbacks, according to a new study shared exclusively with USA TODAY. Roughly 4 in 10 parents say that when they work from home, there are times they go days without leaving their house, while 33% say they "feel very isolated,'' when working remotely, according to the ninth annual Modern Family Index, conducted by The Harris Poll for Bright Horizons, a global provider of early education, child care and workforce education services. (Jones, 5/13)

Drug recovery firm Sierra Tucson concluded from a November 2021 survey that about 20% of US workers admitted to using recreational drugs while working remotely, and also to being under the influence during virtual meetings. Digital recovery clinic Quit Genius found in August 2022 that one in five believe that substance use has affected their work performance, also according to a survey. (Cohen, 5/13)

New treatments for chronic conditions like opioid addiction, ADHD and insomnia are here and they’re on your smartphone — not in a pill bottle. But the government won’t pay for them, even as tech entrepreneurs insist to Congress and the Biden administration that their digital therapeutics are the next big thing. (Reader and Leonard, 5/14)

The police were in her driveway. They wanted her son. Jayne Demsky’s teenage son was not a criminal. He never stole, used illegal substances, or physically hurt anyone. He just didn’t go to school. It started in the middle of 6th grade when he began staying home from school on days his anxiety was too difficult to manage. Those days became more frequent, turning into weeks and months, until he stopped going altogether. Now an officer was at her house, waiting to take her son to school. (Rodriguez, 5/15)

Politicians in Nye County were concerned about the well-being of children at Never Give Up Youth Healing Center as early as July 2021, according to internal emails from the Department of Child and Family Services, but the department assured elected officials that the children were not in imminent danger. (Schnur and Newburg, 5/13)

Macomb County officials are proposing a new $228 million central intake center at the county jail complex, with services for those brought to the lockup with mental health and substance abuse issues. County officials, who for years have discussed renovations at the Mount Clemens facility and even the possibility of a new jail, say the proposed center would be a model for jails in Michigan and possibly beyond. (Hall, 5/12)

California health regulators have barred John Muir Medical Center from treating some of the state’s most seriously ill children after flagging dozens of wide-ranging and serious issues in the Walnut Creek hospital’s pediatric intensive care unit, The Chronicle has learned. (Gafni and Dizikes, 5/12)

Senate Bill 14 would prohibit doctors from prescribing transition medications like puberty blockers or from performing surgeries on minors diagnosed with psychological distress about their gender identity. It passed easily, mostly along party lines, and is expected to get through the Senate, which already approved a similar version, en route to Gov. Greg Abbott’s desk. (Goldenstein, 5/12)

Dell Children’s Medical Center in Austin has stopped providing transition-related care to transgender teenagers, according to several parents who were told they would need to find new providers. Dell Children’s said in a statement Saturday that while its adolescent medicine clinic remains open, “the physicians who previously staffed the clinic will be departing.” Parents said they were told about the doctors’ departures just hours after Attorney General Ken Paxton announced an investigation into “potentially illegal” activity at Dell Children’s. (Klibanoff and Nguyen, 5/13)

San Francisco recorded more accidental overdose deaths from January through April of this year than during the same time periods in each of the last three years, according to data released Friday from the San Francisco Medical Examiner’s office. (Parker, 5/12)

A devastating surge in drug overdoses drove up deaths among unhoused people in Los Angeles County in recent years, along with the rising toll of traffic collisions and homicides, according to a public health department report released Friday. The death rate increased 55% among people experiencing homelessness in L.A. County between 2019 and 2021, a markedly sharper increase than in the years before the COVID-19 pandemic, public health officials found. (Alpert Reyes, 5/12)

Bandages, ice packs, aspirin and epinephrine have long been staples of nurse Dawn Baker's public high school medical clinic in Texas. Now, she also stocks Naloxone to treat drug overdoses -- keeping a supply by the door in case she needs to save a life in an instant. (Dwyer and See, 5/15)

It’s time for gay and bisexual men to pay attention to mpox, formerly known as monkeypox, again. That’s the message from public health authorities and LGBT health providers as cases rise in some countries and small clusters of infections in vaccinated people have been detected in Chicago and France. (Nirapil, 5/12)

The temperatures could raise the risk of heat-related illness, especially as the majority of households in the region are not equipped with central air conditioning. High temperatures are cranking up even more further down the coast. Fresno, California, is forecast to be approaching 100 degrees on Sunday, with high temperatures of 95 degrees to 100 degrees for at least the next five days. (Jacobo and Amarante, 5/14)

A laboratory error incorrectly caused a recall announcement for a brand of salad greens, the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services said. The products from lēf Farms are safe and the recall has been canceled, the department said in a news release Thursday. (5/12)

The idea that sitting might be bad isn’t just 21st-century scaremongering. One of the first studies to suggest a link between illness and sitting was conducted in the 1950s, when researchers found that doubledecker bus drivers were twice as likely to have heart attacks as their conductor colleagues. Since then, dozens of studies have found links between sitting and a variety of ailments, with a 2013 analysis of studies concluding: “Higher amounts of daily total sitting time are associated with greater risk of all-cause mortality.” (Snape, 5/14)

Why some people recover from Lyme disease, while others experience months, years or even decades of chronic symptoms has long puzzled doctors. New research offers some clues to an immune system marker in the blood that is elevated among people with lingering Lyme disease symptoms, even after they’d received antibiotics. (Hopkins, 5/14)

Following last year’s Dobbs v. Jackson Supreme Court decision, lawmakers across the country have proposed reproductive restrictions in the name of preserving life – restrictions that may lead to bans on IVF. (Kristin Dillensnyder, 5/14)

Lawmakers and others are waking up to the need to rein in social media companies as more evidence accumulates about the platforms’ harmful effects on children. Cellphones and other devices that keep children connected to the internet all day long are ubiquitous, even at school. It’s impossible for parents or teachers to monitor children’s access to social media platforms around the clock. (5/15)

Growing up in poverty or experiencing any adversity, such as abuse or neglect, during early childhood can put a person at risk for poor health, including mental disorders, later in life. Although the underlying mechanisms are poorly understood, some studies have shown that adverse early childhood experience leaves persisting (and possibly irreversible) traces in brain structure. (Cordula Holig, Ramesh Kekunnaya and Brigitte Roder, 5/12)

On Aug. 10, 2022, President Joe Biden signed into law one of the largest healthcare and benefits expansions in American history: the Sergeant First Class Heath Robinson Honoring our Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxics Act, or the PACT Act. (Dr. Jeffrey Nadel, Dr. Steven Lieberman and Dr. Shereef Elnahal, 5/15)

Long COVID is a neurological disease that happens after people are no longer infected with SARS-CoV-2. Its prevalence appears to be between 15 percent and 30 percent, according to numerous studies. About 46 percent of people who have it report some type of memory disruption. (Emily Mendenhall and Kenton Kaplan, 5/12)

Ghana has taken a remarkable step in the fight against malaria by becoming the first country in the world to approve the R21/Matrix-M vaccine. It’s poised to be highly effective in young children from 5 months to 36 months, the age group with the highest risk. The approval highlights the continued urgency required to combat this disease, which remains a significant threat to human health and a considerable social and economic burden. (Julius Nyerere Odhiambo, Aaron Tavel and Carrie Dolan, 5/15)