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Morning Briefing

Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations

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Thursday, May 22 2025

Full Issue

Federal Judge Declares AI Does Not Have First Amendment Rights

The lawsuit, filed by a Florida mother, claims her 14 year old's use of Character.AI led to his suicide. The parent company, Character Technologies wants the lawsuit dismissed, claiming chatbots have free speech protections. The ruling means the lawsuit can proceed.

A federal judge on Wednesday rejected arguments made by an artificial intelligence company that its chatbots are protected by the First Amendment 鈥 at least for now. The developers behind Character.AI are seeking to dismiss a lawsuit alleging the company鈥檚 chatbots pushed a teenage boy to kill himself. The judge鈥檚 order will allow the wrongful death lawsuit to proceed, in what legal experts say is among the latest constitutional tests of artificial intelligence. (Payne, 5/21)

Despite often being seen as more progressive, Gen Z is surprisingly more anti-therapy than many of their elders. A new report from BetterHelp reveals a generational divide exists when it comes to the stigma of therapy, and perhaps not in the way you'd expect. Demand for mental health therapy has been skyrocketing in recent years. The number of U.S. adults who received psychotherapy went up from 6.5 percent in 2018 to 8.5 percent in 2021, according to a study published in the American Journal of Psychiatry this year. (Blake, 5/21)

Nearly 16 years ago, Heather Martin lost her sister to suicide. 鈥淚t happened so fast, about three weeks postpartum,鈥 Martin recalled. 鈥淪he struggled with what we know now was postpartum psychosis.鈥 As Martin has tried to figure out how this could happen to her sister 鈥 who seemed happy and healthy one moment, gone the next 鈥 she鈥檚 tried to use her family鈥檚 experience to prevent others from going through the same. (Liu and Furukawa, 5/21)

In reproductive health news 鈥

The U.S. health care system is ill-prepared to treat pregnant patients and their infants who have endured the impacts of wildfire smoke exposure, a new study finds. Many residents of communities prone to the proliferation of wildfire smoke lack geographic access to the treatments they might need, according to the study, published in the American Public Health Association鈥檚聽Medical Care聽journal.聽鈥淭he smoke-plumes generated by wildfires can be transported over large distances and affect nearly every community in the U.S., even those far from fire activity,鈥 the authors stated. (Udasin, 5/21)

Science has pretty well established that the brain isn鈥檛 static; it changes and adapts throughout our lives in response to life events in a process called neuroplasticity. Researchers are discovering this is especially true of female brains, which get remodeled significantly during the three Ps: puberty (as do the brains of adolescent males), pregnancy and perimenopause. (Kane, 5/21)

Supplementary breast cancer imaging with abbreviated MRI and contrast-enhanced mammography detected more cancers than automated whole-breast ultrasound (ABUS) in women with normal mammograms and dense breast tissue, interim results from a randomized trial in the U.K. showed. (Bassett, 5/21)

As social media becomes a hotbed for amateur medical advice and personal anecdotes, posts about getting off the pill and preventing pregnancy through nonhormonal methods rake in thousands of views daily on apps like TikTok. As influencers share their fears about infertility and the possible harms of suppressing your body鈥檚 natural processes, reproductive experts say myths and misinformation about hormonal birth control are on the rise. (Griesser, 5/21)

Also 鈥

Breakfast cereals, a heavily marketed, highly processed mainstay of the American diet, especially among children, are becoming less healthy, filled with increasing amounts of sugar, fat and sodium, according to a study published Wednesday in the journal JAMA Network Open. The study also found that cereals鈥 protein and fiber content 鈥 nutrients essential for a healthy diet 鈥 have been in decline. (Jacobs, 5/21)

Following a Saturday Night Live skit that mocked people with peanut allergies, suggesting they should just 鈥渢ake a Benadryl鈥 and shut up, moms of the severely allergic have been speaking out on social media. Such jokes, they say, gaslight people with allergies and contribute to bullying that can turn deadly. 鈥淪atire is so powerful鈥攊t can highlight social flaws. But to us, there鈥檚 blind spot about food allergies to begin with, and this type of joke just magnifies it,鈥 Lianne Mandelbaum, mom to a 19-year-old son with a deadly peanut allergy and founder of the advocacy nonprofit the No Nut Traveler, tells Fortune. (Greenfield, 5/21)

Factors as far away as the Caribbean Sea and as nearby as the cornfields of Iowa can bring on that muggy, sticky feeling. For people with certain health conditions, it鈥檚 more than an annoyance. (Edgell and Grundmeier, 5/21)

This is part of the Morning Briefing, a summary of health policy coverage from major news organizations. Sign up for an email subscription.
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