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Gender dysphoria diagnoses rose in nearly every U.S. state between 2018 and 2022, per a new Definitive Healthcare report. They fell only in South Dakota, which last year became the sixth state to restrict gender-affirming care for minors. The nearly nationwide increases suggest growing demand for gender-affirming care, even amid efforts in many states to restrict access. (Fitzpatrick and Beheraj, 1/11)

The Ohio House of Representatives voted Wednesday to override Gov. Mike DeWine’s veto of a bill targeting gender-affirming care for transgender youths and the participation of transgender girls in middle school and high school sports. The override of House Bill 68, titled the “Saving Adolescents From Experimentation Act,” passed 65-28, above the three-fifths threshold to overcome a gubernatorial veto. The vote was along party lines and closely mirrored the original vote to pass the measure. The bill now heads to the Ohio Senate, which will next convene on Jan. 24. (Zhu and Bazail-Eimil, 1/10)

Republican lawmakers in South Carolina are bringing a bill banning hormone therapy, the prescription of puberty-blocking drugs and gender transition surgery for anyone under 18 years old to the House floor. During the first two days of the 2024 legislative session, the Medical, Military, Public and Municipal Affairs Committee voted to advance the bill, which is similar to restrictions on health care for transgender minors already in effect in at least 22 other states, according to the Associated Press. House bill 4624 focuses on preventing health professionals from providing the aforementioned therapy, medication and procedure to minors, and also prevents Medicaid from covering such services for anyone under 26 years old. (Pritchett, 1/11)

A federal judge ruled on Wednesday that Alabama can proceed later this month with the first execution by nitrogen gas asphyxiation, saying that the condemned prisoner was unlikely to show the new method amounts to cruel or unusual punishment. Kenneth Smith, convicted for a murder-for-hire committed in 1988, is scheduled to be executed in Alabama on Jan. 25 using the method, in which execution officials will bind a mask to his face connected to a cylinder of nitrogen intended to deprive him of oxygen. (Allen, 1/10)

Federal regulators are warning restaurants and consumers in Massachusetts and at least four other states to steer clear of “whole, live scallops” recently caught from an unlicensed harvester in prohibited waters off the Bay State. In a statement Wednesday, the US Food and Drug Administration advised consumers “not to eat, and restaurants and food retailers not to sell,” scallops from Intershell International Corp. that were received from the unlicensed harvester. (Andersen, 1/10)

�鶹Ů�� Health News: Delicate Labor-Industry Deal In Flux As Newsom Revisits $25 Minimum Health Wage 

Gov. Gavin Newsom is revisiting California’s phase-in of a nation-leading $25 minimum wage for health workers in the face of a projected $38 billion deficit, less than three months after he approved the measure. But renegotiating wages could threaten a delicate compromise between unions and the health industry. Newsom, whose administration initially opposed the wage deal as too costly, signed the bill, SB 525, into law without knowing the final price tag. His Democratic administration now projects the first-year cost to be $4 billion, though that number has been questioned by labor leaders. (Thompson, 1/11)

�鶹Ů�� Health News: Delays In State Contracts Leave Montana Health Providers Strapped

Montana health organizations say a state government backlog in paying its contractors has hindered their ability to provide care, and they worry the bottleneck’s ripple effects will be felt long after the money comes through. Several organizations waiting for contracts to be approved and funding to arrive said that more than 200 private and public contractors across the state government were affected at one point. Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services officials acknowledged the delays but would not confirm the total number of contracts affected. (Houghton, 1/11)

�鶹Ů�� Health News: Hoping To Clear The Air In Casinos, Workers Seek To Ban Tobacco Smoke 

The instant Tammy Brady felt the lump in her breast in February 2022, she knew it was cancer. With no known genetic predisposition for breast cancer, she suspects 38 years of working in smoky Atlantic City casinos played a role. “I was just trying to make a living,” said Brady, 56, a dealer and supervisor at Borgata in that New Jersey resort city. “You don’t think, you know, that you’re going to get sick at your job.” (West, 1/11)