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The legal fight involves an attempt by New Jersey’s Attorney General to subpoena crisis pregnancy center records. (VanSickle, 12/2)

Texas’ massive new abortion law taking effect this week could escalate the national fight over mailing abortion pills. (Luthra, 12/1)

Oscarina spent the first week of her son’s life moving between his bassinet in the neonatal intensive care unit and her small apartment to care for her 6-year-old daughter. She is sore. She is tired. And she is alone. Oscarina and her husband escaped violence in Venezuela and moved 2,000 miles north to Missouri in 2023, seeking more stable housing and a better future for their daughter. Neither have permanent legal status in the United States, and when she learned she had a second child on the way, Oscarina wondered how they could afford to raise another baby. (Spoerre, 12/2)

Gestational diabetes was not linked with oral corticosteroid (OCS) use during pregnancy, although there was a small risk increase during early pregnancy, according to a nationwide cohort study of more than a million women. (Robertson, 12/1)

An image-only artificial intelligence (AI) model recently authorized by the FDA conferred more precise risk stratification in predicting the 5-year risk of breast cancer compared with radiologist-based breast density assessments, a large-scale analysis indicated. (Henderson, 12/1)

Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) infection in early infancy may significantly raise the risk of childhood asthma, particularly for children whose parents have asthma or allergy, Belgian and Danish researchers wrote last week in Science Immunology. (Van Beusekom, 12/1)

The FDA approved Cleveland Diagnostics' blood-based test to help diagnose high-grade prostate tumors and aid in biopsy decisions, the company announced. Dubbed IsoPSA, the in vitro diagnostic kit is indicated for men ages 50 and older with an elevated prostate-specific antigen (PSA) level. According to the company, the blood-based test analyzes the PSA isoform composition in blood to better determine whether or not elevated PSA comes from cancer cells. (Bassett, 12/1)

People with "beer bellies" may have an increased risk of heart damage, raising fresh concerns about the health risks tied to extra weight around the midsection. German researchers found that men with fat deposits around the abdomen showed clear signs of early heart damage, even when their overall weight wasn’t especially high. Scientists wanted to better understand whether abdominal fat — the kind stored deep around internal organs — is more harmful to the heart than general body fat. (Quill, 12/1)

China will impose a value-added tax on contraceptive drugs and devices — including condoms — for the first time in three decades, its latest bid to reverse plunging birth rates that threaten to further slow its economy. Under the newly revised Value-Added Tax Law, consumers will pay a 13% levy on items that had been VAT-exempt since 1993, when China enforced a strict one-child policy and actively promoted birth control. (Kan, 12/2)