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Pope Francis shook up an already intense debate over birth control and abortion in Latin American countries where the Zika virus is causing a public health emergency by declaring on Thursday that contraceptives could be used to prevent the spread of Zika, which researchers have linked to a spike in cases of babies born with severe brain damage. The pope’s remarks came in a wide-ranging, midair news conference on his way back to Rome from Mexico in which he made a distinction between abortion and birth control. He ruled out condoning abortion, which he called “a crime, an absolute evil.” But he seemed somewhat open to making an exception for contraception, citing Pope Paul VI’s decision in the 1960s to make an emergency exception to permit nuns in the Belgian Congo to use contraceptives because they were in danger of rape. (Romero and Yardley, 2/18)

Under no circumstances, Francis said, should abortion be considered a "lesser evil," and he said the procedure should be avoided at all cost. “It is a crime, [killing] one person to save another,” he said. "That is something that the Mafia does ... an absolute evil." However, preventing a pregnancy that was in danger of being exposed to Zika might be allowable, he said, but only if it would most certainly prevent a pregnancy at risk. (Wilkinson, 2/18)

It was not immediately clear what effect the pope’s remarks would have in heavily Catholic Latin America, where cases of Zika are multiplying. Researchers increasingly believe the virus is linked to thousands of cases of microcephaly — a condition in which babies are born with small heads and brain abnormalities — in Brazil. There also is evidence that the virus is spread through sexual transmission in some ­cases. (Boorstein, Itkowitz and Pulliam Bailey, 2/18)

The [Pope's] comments on contraception—which is against church teaching—caused a stir especially in Latin America, a predominantly Catholic region at the center of what the World Health Organization has declared to be a global health emergency over the Zika virus and its possible connection to a birth defect called microcephaly. “What he’s saying is that protecting reproductive rights is protecting the population,” said Debora Diniz, a founder of Anis, a women’s rights group based in the Brazilian capital. (Rocca, 2/18)

Theologians and some Latin American bishops cautioned the pope was not giving a green light for Catholics to use artificial birth control, nor did his remarks amount to a change in church teaching. But Francis’ comments suggest that Catholics under specific circumstances could make a “conscience-based decision about whether they should prevent pregnancy,” said the Rev. James Bretzke, a moral theologian at Boston College. (Winfield, 2/19)

The pope faced similar questions about contraception during a trip to Africa, where sexually transmitted AIDS remains a major concern. Francis deflected the questioning, listing hunger, lack of drinking water and exploitation among more pressing issues for the continent. After a visit to Asia in January 2015, the pope said Catholics may have a moral responsibility to limit the number of their children and need not reproduce "like rabbits.'' But he reaffirmed the church's ban on artificial means of birth control and said Catholics should practice "responsible parenting." (Bacon, 2/18)

They were only brief remarks, but Pope Francis’s response to a question about the use of contraception in the midst of the Zika outbreak has already prompted debate about its implications for public health. (Joseph, 2/18)

The World Health Organization issued a strong call on Thursday for the use of contraception in countries with the Zika virus, and said that women who had unprotected sex and feared infection should have access to emergency contraception, a recommendation that may not sit well with the Roman Catholic Church. (Tavernise, 2/18)

The head of the House Appropriations Committee on Thursday turned down the Obama administration’s request for emergency funding to fight the Zika virus, citing a pool of funding leftover from the Ebola virus. Federal health officials had requested $1.8 billion to combat the Zika virus both in the U.S. and abroad. Most of that money would have gone to the Health and Human Services Department (HHS) for research into vaccines and diagnostics of the relatively unknown disease, which is largely spread by mosquitoes and has infected dozens of people in the U.S. since spreading from Latin America. (Ferris, 2/18)

Obama administration officials are increasingly worried about Puerto Rico’s ability to handle a projected influx of Zika virus cases, given the territory’s struggling health care infrastructure and limits on federal Medicaid funding. U.S. health officials said last week that they expect a significant number of Zika cases in Puerto Rico because the mosquito that spreads the virus is common there. Health and Human Services Department officials on Thursday noted the Zika outbreak in detailing its emergency plan to help Puerto Rico. Among other things, the administration wants to temporarily lift a cap on Medicaid—increasing the territory’s federal Medicaid share with about $250 million in additional federal assistance. (Armour, 2/18)

The Obama administration is calling for Congress to act to increase healthcare funding for Puerto Rico through changes to the Medicaid program there. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) on Thursday highlighted requests President Obama made in his budget last week to increase healthcare funding for the island territory, part of a broader administration push to assist Puerto Rico and address its debt crisis. (Sulivan, 2/18)

The outbreak of the Zika virus that has swept Latin America in recent months will have an economic impact on the region’s countries of $3.5 billion in 2016, the World Bank said Thursday. The estimate of the economic impact of the disease is based on expectations of a fast and coordinated effort to control the spread of Zika and on the assumption that the main risks of the virus are to pregnant women, the international organization said in a note. (Lewis and Magalhaes, 2/18)

The funding, being made available immediately, comes after extensive consultations with governments in the region, the bank said in a statement. The bank said it could provide additional financing if needed. Based on its projections, the short-term economic impact of Zika on the region is likely to be about $3.5 billion. The countries that are likely to see significant impacts include: Mexico, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Brazil, Argentina, Belize and Jamaica. (Dennis and Sun, 2/18)

A Seattle sperm bank has deferred a potential donor who traveled to an area where Zika virus is spreading, part of growing new precautions aimed at keeping U.S. blood and tissue supplies safe. (Aleccia, 2/18)

Two new cases of Zika virus infection in Miami-Dade were confirmed Thursday, bringing the statewide total to 24, the Florida Department of Health reported. Nine cases of Zika infection have been confirmed in Miami-Dade — more than twice the number verified in any other county in the state. All Zika infections were acquired outside the state by travelers, health officials reported, and no cases involve pregnant women, who are considered at greatest risk. (Chang, 2/18)

Deaths from opioids grab news headlines, government budgets, and the futures of troubled people. But these deadly drugs often have help. Benzodiazepines — underestimated and, some say, overprescribed — are killing people, too. (Samuels, 2/18)

“Hillbilly heroin,” they called it – OxyContin, and other opioid prescription painkillers. Police Chief Bill Hollingsed of Waynesville, in Western North Carolina’s Haywood County, recalls about four years ago when the county medical examiner shared with him a shocking statistic: Twenty-five percent of recent deaths investigated by that office were attributable to overdose of these drugs. Hollingsed was aware opioid use was on the rise, but such a high rate of death – “It took even those of us in law enforcement by surprise,” he said. (Sisk, 2/18)

The California pornographic film industry turned out in force Thursday to oppose regulations that would have forced actors to wear condoms and, in some cases, goggles, face shields or rubber gloves when on camera. A parade of actors took to the podium in a government auditorium here as five members of the California Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board listened to their pleas for more than five hours. The hearing ended with the board deciding to vote down the proposal as written, but to reconsider a revised version over the next year. (Fuller, 2/18)

[Division of Occupational Safety and Health’s Standards Board] members appeared influenced by the large number of industry representatives, ranging from actors to writers to directors, who argued forcefully but politely during five hours of testimony. If the proposed regulations didn’t destroy their multibillion-dollar industry, they said, they would likely force it underground. Doing that, they added, could be even worse for performers by eliminating existing safeguards such as the industry’s requirement that actors be tested every 14 days for sexually transmitted diseases. “I ask you not to approve this policy that will endanger me and my colleagues,” said porn actress Maxine Holloway. (Rogers, 2/19)

Wyoming Gov. Matt Mead is making another plea for state lawmakers to expand the Medicaid program, a move that would offer subsidized insurance coverage to about 20,000 low-income adults. Mead told lawmakers in his state of the state address this month that Wyoming can't afford to reject $268 million in federal funds over the next two years as state energy revenues are falling. He repeated his call on Thursday (Neary, 2/18)

A federal appeals court in Atlanta on Thursday upheld a contraceptive mandate included in the president’s health care law but is delaying the implementation of its ruling until the U.S. Supreme Court can weigh in on the issue. A three-judge panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 2-1 to reject challenges to the mandate in a single opinion addressing two separate cases, one filed by nonprofit organizations affiliated with the Catholic Church in Georgia and the other by Catholic broadcaster Eternal Word Television Network in Alabama. (Brumback, 2/18)

International Business Machines Corp. is buying data company Truven Health Analytics Inc. for $2.6 billion, in a bid to expand its already considerable presence in the health-care industry. The deal will double the size of IBM’s Watson Health business unit to 5,000 employees, as the company adds new technology services to sell to doctors and hospitals. IBM has been on a health-care spending spree in the past year, doling out more than $4 billion to buy medical-technology companies. (McMillan and Wilde Mathews, 2/18)

IBM is paying $2.6 billion to buy Truven Health Analytics, a provider of cloud-based health care data, and bolster the health care capabilities of its Watson cognitive computing system. The Armonk, N.Y., company says the deal will bring in more than 8,500 clients and allow it to house health-related data representing an aggregate of about 300 million patient lives. Truven, based in Ann Arbor, Mich., has an office in Greenwood Village. (2/18)

Computer giant IBM is paying $2.6 billion to buy Truven Health Analytics to bolster the healthcare capabilities of its Watson cognitive computing system. The company says the deal will bring in more than 8,500 clients, according to a press release. Those Truven clients include hospitals, clinicians, health plans, employers, life science companies, and state and federal government agencies. Data brought over from the deal will also swell IBM's existing health-record data set to about 300 million patient lives, the company said. (Conn, 2/18)

Wisconsin Republican Governor Scott Walker signed two bills into law on Thursday that block federal funding from Planned Parenthood and could cost the local organization millions of dollars. Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin could lose about $7.5 million a year because of the measures, an organization spokeswoman said. (Gonzales and Herskovitz, 2/18)

Gov. Scott Walker signed two bills Thursday that cut by several million dollars a year the amount of public money that goes to Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin. (Paulsen, 2/18)

Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin announced Thursday that the state has filed a lawsuit against Planned Parenthood of Indiana and Kentucky Inc. for operating a facility in which it alleges that 23 abortions were performed unlawfully from Dec. 3 through Jan. 28. The lawsuit is the latest development in the clash between Bevin and Planned Parenthood, which has said it was operating under instructions of the state Cabinet for Health and Family Services when it began offering abortions in December at its new clinic in downtown Louisville. (Yetter, 2/18)

A top Texas health official is stepping down after co-authoring a study that drew strong backlash from Republican leaders for suggesting that cuts to Planned Parenthood are restricting access to women's health care statewide. Rick Allgeyer, director of research at the Texas Health and Human Services Commission, was facing possible discipline for the study published this month in the New England Journal of Medicine. He was eligible for retirement and will leave in March, agency spokesman Bryan Black said Thursday. (2/18)

A high-ranking official at the Texas Health and Human Services Commission is stepping down after he co-authored a controversial study that found fewer women accessed a Texas family planning program after Planned Parenthood was kicked out in 2013. (Walters, 2/18)

Two South Florida hospitals paid millions in fines this week to settle charges that they filed false claims with Medicare for implanting cardiac devices in patients during a waiting period when doctors are supposed to hold off and see if patients recover on their own. (Chang, 2/18)

Hospitals say they are learning a lot, but eliminating errors is tougher than anyone thought it would be. Over the year ending last October, there were 316 adverse patient events — slightly higher than the year before, and on par with past years, according to a state Health department report released Friday. (Benson, 2/19)

As other not-for-profit hospitals are reducing debt, University of Chicago Medicine is planning to borrow more money to finance a significant expansion of its Hyde Park campus. The medical center has amassed $868 million in long-term debt to modernize its health care facilities and expand to the suburbs. The credit rating agencies were already concerned about the amount of debt before the medical center announced plans Thursday to borrow an additional $200 million to enlarge its emergency room to add trauma services and increase the number of hospital beds by 30 percent. (Sachdev, 2/18)

Broomfield-based Sisters of Charity of Leavenworth Health System and one of its Colorado hospitals were part of a $23 million federal settlement related to improper Medicare billing for cardiac devices implanted in patients. Five hospitals affiliated with SCL, including Saint Mary's Hospital & Regional Medical Center in Grand Junction, were part of the settlement. SCL agreed to pay $1.95 million to settle its portion of the claims. (Osher, 2/18)

Looking to expand its share of South Florida’s growing market for post-operative rehabilitation therapy and skilled nursing, Kindred Hospital South Florida-Hollywood this month announced the opening of a 30-bed unit at the medical center’s campus in South Broward. The new unit offers recovering patients rehabilitation therapy focused on daily living skills, according to Kindred’s announcement, which projects the new center will create 50 additional jobs at the hospital. (Chang, 2/18)

Since January, Charley McGrady has been doling out hormonal contraceptive pills and patches to women who come to her Eugene, Oregon, pharmacy without a doctor’s prescription for birth control. A new state law allows McGrady to consult women about pregnancy prevention and write prescriptions for contraceptives that previously required a doctor’s signature. (Breitenbach, 2/19)

State and federal officials acted to send more help to Flint to deal with its lead-contamination crisis, as the Michigan House approved $30 million on Thursday to help pay residents' water bills and Gov. Rick Snyder announced a $2 million grant to help the city replace some of its pipes. The federal government is giving $500,000 to two health centers that are treating and testing Flint residents exposed to the lead-tainted water. (2/18)

The Wyoming Senate is working on a bill that is intended to reform how people can be involuntarily detained in a mental health crisis. (Beck, 2/18)

In a few months, 24 workers will fan out across the city in hopes of tackling the high rates of infant mortality that plague their neighborhoods. The group will be the first of 72 workers trained at Ohio State University's College of Nursing to help connect new mothers, pregnant women and women of childbearing age to health and community services. (Kurtzman, 2/18)

A hearing is scheduled for a measure to allow terminally ill Maryland residents to legally end their lives with drugs prescribed by a doctor. The hearing is set for Friday in the House Health and Government Operations Committee. The bill would allow mentally capable, terminally ill patients with less than six months to live to obtain prescription drugs they could ingest themselves, if their suffering becomes unbearable. (2/19)

Legislators apparently won’t pass a bill to require nursing-home employees to show they understand how to serve people with dementia, a key lawmaker said Wednesday. House Study Bill 566 was supported by the Alzheimer’s Association but opposed by the nursing-home industry. It would require training about dementia for new employees and would require them to demonstrate they understand the lessons. (Leys, 2/18)

Proponents of a bill to give businesses tax credits if an employee receives less public assistance after being hired couldn’t estimate the proposal’s financial impact, and the complicated nature of public assistance doesn’t help the task. (Hart, 2/18)

Florida legislators are looking to end what one lawmaker calls a “monopoly” written into state law that benefits a for-profit company with a history of abuse at group homes for the disabled. AdvoServ’s sprawling Carlton Palms Educational Center in central Florida houses nearly 30 percent of all state residents who are in group homes because of developmental and intellectual disabilities and challenging behavior. Roughly 200 adults and children live there. (Vogell, 2/18)

Teenagers are leading the way toward a healthier Colorado. In their 10th annual health report card, the Colorado Health Institute and Colorado Health Foundation laud teens in five of 10 good-news categories. Twenty-three percent of Colorado teens are sexually active, the lowest rate in the nation. The teen birth rate has dropped by nearly half since 2007, to 23 per thousand girls. More children are getting dental care, fewer are binge drinking and two-thirds now participate "in vigorous physical activity." (Olinger, 2/18)

Iowa's Board of Law Examiners is officially giving breast-feeding mothers a break. The board has clarified its policies to allow new moms time to breast-feed during the Iowa Bar Exam, which they must pass before practicing law in Iowa, said Dave Ewert, assistant director for admissions for the Iowa Bar Exam. "We want to make sure they feel comfortable there," Ewert said. (Haley, 2/18)

It's well known that Americans are not getting enough sleep. But some parts of the United States do it better than others. If you bed down in Minnesota, South Dakota or Colorado, you're likely getting seven or more hours a night. But you're less in luck if you live in Hawaii, where only 56 percent of adults get enough rest. Not that the rest of the country is doing much better. Of the roughly 444,000 Americans polled, about 65 percent got more than seven hours a night according to the study, which was published Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (Chen, 2/18)

The city of Prairie Village is looking to add its name to the list of Kansas City-area communities that have raised the age to buy tobacco from 18 to 21. At its regular meeting Tuesday, the City Council asked the city’s legal staff to develop an ordinance similar to a model proposed by Tobacco 21, a campaign seeking to get the age limit for tobacco products and electronic cigarettes raised in cities across the country to 21. Already Kansas City, Independence, Olathe, Gladstone and Kansas City, Kan., have raised the tobacco purchase age within their borders. (Twiddy, 2/18)

Most physicians reported by hospitals, medical societies, and malpractice insurers to the National Practitioner Data Bank (NPDB) for sexual misconduct have never been disciplined by their state medical board for that behavior, according to a new study by the consumer watchdog group Public Citizen. To be sure, medical boards frequently discipline such physicians and report them to the NPDB. However, the Public Citizen study suggests that many hospitals and other groups that are required to report sexual misconduct to the database do not share that information with their state medical board, as required by federal law, as well as the laws of most states. (Lowes, 2/18)

Many family caregivers in the U.S. provide unpaid medical aid and other services to loved ones at the expense of their own financial, physical and mental health, a study suggests. Nationwide, an estimated 14.7 million family caregivers assist 7.7 million older adults who live in the community rather than in institutions like nursing homes. These family members often help with daily activities like eating, bathing and dressing. Many also provide medical support such as scheduling physician checkups, managing medications, cleaning wounds and giving injections. (Rapaport, 2/15)

Millions of family and friends who help older, disabled adults manage medications and navigate the health system may be sacrificing their own well-being, a new study suggests. Caregivers who provided "substantial help" with health care in these settings were roughly twice as likely to experience physical, financial and emotional difficulties as those who did not provide that help, the study found. (Pallarito, 2/16)

In the war on cancer, we may have a strange new ally: the viruses that infected our distant ancestors. New research suggests that hidden stretches of viral DNA in the human genome could help fight cancer by setting off an alert to the immune system. ... This is a potentially powerful weapon because it would undermine one of cancer’s main survival tactics: disguising itself as healthy tissue. (Roland, 2/18)

In recent years, more than 95 percent of U.S. women diagnosed with cancer at age 40 or younger got tested for mutations that raise their risk of future cancers, according to a new study. The rate of genetic testing has steadily risen from about 70 percent in 2007, and that’s a positive trend, researchers say, because the test results can influence women’s decisions about treatment. (Doyle, 2/17)

A sense of meaning in life may be a critical factor in curbing suicidal thoughts in older adults, new research shows. It is important for healthcare providers to ask older adults about positive psychological factors, said lead investigator Marnin Heisel, PhD, of the Lawson Health Research Institute, London, Ontario, Canada. "We should not exclusively be looking at the negative side of things ― depression, hopelessness, psychopathology. Of course, all of those things need to be evaluated, especially in older adults. But even for older adults who are struggling with these sorts of issues, we found that people who were able to identify some sort of meaning in life or particular things that give them a reason for living were significantly less likely to feel depressed, lonely, or suicidal," Dr Heisel told Medscape Medical News. (Brooks, 2/17)

In what experts describe as another piece of evidence linking Zika with the risk of birth defects, researchers on Wednesday reported finding the virus in the amniotic fluid of two pregnant women whose foetuses were diagnosed with microcephaly. In a study in the Lancet Infectious Diseases journal, the scientists said their finding suggests Zika virus can cross the placental barrier, but does not prove it causes microcephaly, a condition in which babies are born with abnormally small heads. More research is needed to understand the link, they said. (Kelland, 2/17)

Pregnant women who eat more than three servings of fish a week – that is, more than the maximum recommended by U.S. health regulators – may face an increased risk of having babies who grow rapidly and become obese in childhood, a research review suggests. Previous research has linked one pollutant in fish – mercury – to damage of the nervous, digestive and immune systems, lungs, kidneys, skin and eyes. Because of this, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and Environmental Protection Agency encourage pregnant women to limit consumption to no more than three servings a week. (Rapaport, 2/15)

New randomized trial results show that in patients with insulin resistance, no frank diabetes, and a history of stroke or transient ischemic attack, treatment with diabetes drug pioglitazone (Actos, Takeda Pharmaceuticals) reduced the risk for recurrent stroke or myocardial infarction (MI) vs placebo. While treatment was associated with a lower risk for diabetes, patients receiving pioglitazone also had higher rates of weight gain, edema, and bone fracture requiring surgery or hospitalization. (Jeffrey, 2/17)

Elderly patients hospitalized for cancer surgery are more likely to have complications afterward compared to the middle-aged, particularly when they have several other health problems, a U.S. study suggests. Overall, almost one in 10 adults age 55 and older had at least one post-operative issue like delirium, dehydration, falls, fractures, pressure ulcers or unusual weight loss, the study of nearly 1 million cancer surgery patients found. (Rapaport, 2/17)

Urban men with localized prostate cancer may be more likely to get surgery or radiation than their rural peers, a U.S. study suggests. Men had 23 percent higher odds of getting these aggressive treatments when they lived in densely populated U.S. counties than if they resided in rural counties, according to the analysis of cancer registry data for about 138,000 men. The conservative alternatives – watchful waiting or hormone therapy to shrink tumors without surgery or radiation – were more common in less populated areas, with 22 percent of rural men receiving this type of care compared with 19 percent of their urban counterparts. (Rapaport, 2/18)

Leading academic medical centers across the U.S. have a poor record of reporting results from clinical trials, leaving patients and doctors with a potentially skewed view of the safety and benefits of treatments, a new study finds. Nationwide, only about two-thirds of results from more than 4,300 studies completed between 2007 and 2010 were published or reported and only about one-third were released to the public within two years of completion. (Aleccia, 2/18)

Individualized acupuncture treatments were tied to greater pain relief for people with fibromyalgia, according to results from a small trial in Spain that compared the approach to sham acupuncture. Researchers found the benefits of tailored acupuncture seemed to persist even a year after treatment. But an expert not involved in the research thinks the evidence for acupuncture is still limited. (Doyle, 2/17)

Children born at extremely low birth weight may face greater risk of bullying than their normal-sized peers and be more prone to suffer lasting effects from victimization, a Canadian study suggests. Among adult survivors of childhood bullying, people who had been tiny infants appeared more likely than those born weighing 2,500 grams (5.5 pounds) or more to be depressed, anxious, antisocial, avoidant, and hyperactive or experience obsessive-compulsive or panic disorders, researchers report in Pediatrics. (Rapaport, 2/17)

Before the New Hampshire primary, Democratic and Republican candidates talked a lot about the state’s opioid epidemic, an issue that ranked high among public concerns in Granite State polls. The 2016 campaign has moved south, with South Carolina’s Republican primary on Saturday and votes to follow in 10 more of the 17 southern states by March 15, but there has been little discussion of poor health status in the region. (Drew Altman, 2/18)

Bernie Sanders has a problem with the liberal wonkosphere — or, more precisely, the liberal wonkosphere has a problem with Bernie Sanders. ... On Wednesday, it took the form of a joint letter from four people who led the White House Council of Economic Advisers during the Clinton and Obama administrations. They criticized projections by Gerald Friedman, an economist who has advised Mr. Sanders, of what the candidate’s policy proposals would achieve. ... Behind the critiques: Mr. Sanders’s advisers have often worked off assumptions that their policies would sharply increase economic growth, reduce health care costs and create other salutary effects, making the policies in question look more affordable and desirable than they would with more cautious assumptions. (Neil Irwin, 2/18)

Forget the kerfuffle over Pope Francis insinuating that Donald Trump isn’t Christian. The real news from the pontiff: He appears to have given his blessing to artificial contraceptives. At least as used by women in countries where they fear they have been exposed to the Zika virus and getting pregnant would put them at risk of delivering babies with severe deformities linked to the disease. (Carla Hall, 2/18)

The crisis in Flint, Michigan has focused attention on lead-tainted water flowing through taps in the U.S. as well as lead paint exposures that continue to plague cities such as Baltimore and Philadelphia. While there’s skepticism surrounding recent claims that lead poisoning rates are higher in Philadelphia than in Flint, there’s no disputing that there’s a serious problem in both cities and many others. The term “poisoning” is the source of some confusion. Since Flint switched to a more corrosive source of water in 2014, bringing lead from pipes into the drinking supply, some residents have reported rashes, hair loss, fatigue and other classic symptoms of lead poisoning. But scientists now believe that exposures too low to cause people to feel sick can do serious and possibly permanent neurological damage, especially in children. (Faye Flam, 2/19)

North Carolina law allows pharmacies to sell syringes without a prescription, but prohibits the sales if it is known they will be used for illicit drug purposes ... The law does not define the burden of proof. That has led to a patchwork of pharmacy policies regarding syringe sales, leaving legitimate patients unable to obtain syringes without abridging their rights to privacy and self-determination. (Brian N. Decker, 2/17)

When the World Health Organization declared the Zika virus a global emergency, it also claimed that the disease was tied to increased cases of microcephaly in babies. A day later, the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, which actively promotes the view that “access to abortion is a matter of human rights,” was putting pressure on countries in Central and South America to change laws that protect prenatal children from violence. (Charles C. Camosy, 2/19)

A bill proposed by Kentucky lawmaker Mary Lou Marzian would prevent doctors from prescribing erectile dysfunction drugs like Viagra to anyone other than married men who have their partner's written consent. Ms. Marzian said she was trying to "wake up women" after her state passed a law requiring medical consultations for them 24 hours prior to having an abortion. (Tricia Bishop, 2/18)

Kudos to state Rep. Joann Ginal for taking on the pharmaceutical industry and its pricing policies. Those of us who saw Martin Shkreli s appearance before Congress were appalled by his smugness and refusal to answer questions about usurious pricing of medications. He is the poster child for what is wrong with the industry. Congress also should be answering questions about drug pricing. Given the costs of health care, Congress continues to uphold the law that makes it impossible for Medicare to negotiate drug prices. This is the gift that keeps on giving to the pharmaceutical industry. (Michael Hobbs, 2/18)

For the more than 700,000 Marylanders who are unable to earn paid sick days, abiding by a doctor's orders to stay home and rest can mean forgoing groceries or rent. The choice is even more heart-wrenching for working parents who must decide between sending a sick child to school or day care, versus staying home and missing out on necessary income. (Luke Clippinger, 2/18)

Gov. Jerry Brown listened. After residents, local officials and activists criticized his administration's excruciatingly slow pace in cleaning up lead-tainted homes near the shuttered Exide plant, the governor has stepped up with a proposal to spend $176.6 million to test and decontaminate affected properties within a year. (2/18)