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Donald Trump now says abortion laws should not be changed. It's a pendulum swing for the Republican presidential contender on an issue that's caused him grief since he said earlier in the week there should be "some form of punishment" for women who get abortions if the procedure is outlawed. Now he's shifted anew, in a "Face The Nation" interview being broadcast Sunday. In an excerpt broadcast Friday on "CBS Evening News," Trump said about abortion: "The laws are set. And I think we have to leave it that way." He declined several times to say whether he thinks abortion is murder. "I have my opinions on it, but I'd rather not comment on it," he said. Asked if he disagrees with those who consider the procedure to be murder, he said, "No, I don't disagree with it." (4/2)

Donald Trump has come under fire for just about every answer he gave on abortion in the past week. On Sunday, Trump expressed regret for his initial remarks about punishing women who receive abortions if the procedure were banned, and he said he corrected his statements so that his view is "acceptable to everybody." ... On "Fox News Sunday," Trump said he was answering a "hypothetical" question. "I said the woman because it was asked hypothetically," Trump said. "I also corrected it, and I made it very much so that I think -- everybody -- it's acceptable now for everybody." (Lee, 4/3)

You can see the exact moment last week that Donald Trump made up his mind on whether women would face criminal punishment once he signed new restrictions into law. He is at a town hall with MSNBC’s Chris Matthews, and, after Matthews badgers him for a while, he finally answers the question. “The answer is ... that,” Trump says, eyes looking to the side in thought, “there has to be some form of punishment.” He punctuates “has” with a hand gesture. Done. Final. But as it turns out — and as it has turned out repeatedly over the course of his life — that was not, in fact, Trump’s final position on the subject. (Bump, 4/3)

Donald Trump’s comments on abortion this week attracted a lot of attention on social media — but not from the candidate himself. On Wednesday Trump told MSNBC’s Chris Matthews that he believes there should be some sort of punishment for women who get abortions if the practice were illegal. Within a few hours, Trump released follow-up statements walking back the initial comments, but his words reverberated online. (Gold, 4/2)

Republican presidential candidate John Kasich defended abortion restrictions he has signed as governor even as he rejected a call last week by Donald Trump to legally punish women who have had abortions. (Torry, 4/3)

Democratic presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders were on opposing sides of certain types of biomedical research while they served in Congress, differences that have gained notice by scientists and advocates on the forefront of stem cell research. Clinton has pointed to her advocacy for groundbreaking medical research, from her push for more dollars as a New York senator for the National Institutes of Health to her long support for stem cell research that could eventually lead to regenerative medicine. Sanders, a Vermont senator, has supported stem cell research in the Senate. But advocates within the scientific community cite his voting record in the early 2000s in the House when he repeatedly supported a ban on all forms of human cloning, including one called therapeutic cloning intended to create customized cells to treat disease. (4/2)

Newly confirmed FDA Commissioner Dr. Robert Califf is No. 1 on this year's ranking of the most influential physician leaders in healthcare. Read about the others who climbed to the top and who's new to the list. (4/2)

An opioid abuse epidemic fueled by prescription drugs. Public outcry over high drug prices. A huge backlog of generic drug applications. Industry stakeholders pressing for faster approvals. Former clinical researcher Dr. Robert Califf recently took over a U.S. Food and Drug Administration that is heading into an era of unprecedented challenges and change. The decisions he will make over the next few years—assuming he holds on to his job in the next administration—will redefine how drugs, medical devices, tobacco, food safety and controlled substances are regulated in the 21st century. (Johnson, 4/2)

The Arkansas General Assembly will convene in special session Wednesday to consider Gov. Asa Hutchinson's managed-care legislation that's divided some lawmakers, plus another bill overhauling the state's private-option program into what Hutchinson calls Arkansas Works. Under the private option, the state uses federal Medicaid dollars to purchase private health insurance for low-income Arkansans. Most of the approximately 267,000 Arkansans on the expanded Medicaid program are on the private option. (Wickline, 4/3)

Hutchinson is proposing renaming the program "Arkansas Works" and wants to add new restrictions that he says will help participants move up the economic ladder. He says participants who make at least 100 percent of the federal poverty level should pay a premium equal to 2 percent of their income. The legislation would require participants 21 and older enroll in employer health insurance, if available and if the employer agrees to participate, with the program paying for premiums and co-pays. The bill would also require that unemployed participants be referred to the Department of Workforce Services for job training and job search programs. (DeMillo, 4/3)

Brittany Hudson was pregnant, addicted to painkillers and afraid of a Tennessee law that calls for the arrest of mothers of drug-dependent babies. She eventually gave birth without medical help, on the side of a road in the foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains. Hudson's dilemma, doctors say, was one of many unintended consequences of the Tennessee Legislature's decision in 2014 to become the first and only state with an explicit criminal offense for these addicted mothers. (4/1)

Twenty weeks. It’s a seemingly arbitrary measure that recently shattered the lives of Daniel and Taylor Mahaffey as the Austin couple was happily preparing for the birth of a son. Late on a Wednesday, Taylor Mahaffey, 23 — who had been previously diagnosed with a condition known as incompetent cervix — felt something was off. Having suffered through a miscarriage during a previous pregnancy, the couple rushed to St. David’s North Austin Medical Center only to discover that Taylor’s cervix had prematurely dilated and their son’s legs were already emerging. (Ura, 4/3)

Thousands protested on Sunday against the Polish government after the ruling party’s powerful leader and the country’s prime minister said they backed a complete ban on abortion advocated by the Catholic Church. ... The proposed move would end a status quo reached in the 1990s under which abortion is allowed in three cases -- when the pregnancy is the result of a crime like rape or incest, when it puts the health of the mother at risk, and when the fetus is terminally ill or has a severe disability. (Sobczyk, 4/3)

Treatment for drug and alcohol addictions is incredibly expensive, often rising to tens of thousands of dollars a month for residential treatment. And even people who have good insurance that will pay for such programs often face limits on how much that insurance will cover. Yet people like the Frawleys, who could afford treatment for their daughter, still face the issue of finding the right treatment. That is where a small group of people have stepped up as consultants to guide families through the many options for treatment. (Sullivan, 4/1)

When Kevin Polly first started abusing Opana ER, a potent prescription opioid painkiller, he took pills — or fractions of pills — and crushed them into a fine powder, then snorted it. But the drug's manufacturer, Endo Pharmaceuticals, reformulated Opana in 2012. The new pills featured a coating that was intended to make them more difficult to abuse by crushing them into powder or dissolving them. Polly discovered he could no longer snort the medicine in the pill, to which he had become addicted. But he and other Opana users soon found a way to remove the drug's hard coating and receive Opana's powerful dose all at once: injection. He says he never anticipated what would happen next. In early 2015, Polly tested positive for HIV. (Dreisbach, 4/1)

Addiction to prescription painkillers and related heroin use, longtime plagues on local communities, are now enough of a national epidemic that Congress and the White House are responding with new ideas for prevention and treatment. President Barack Obama on Tuesday announced a series of regulations to improve treatment and insurance coverage for opioid addiction, provide more medicine for reversing overdoses, better train doctors on prescribing painkillers and combat heroin trafficking. (Troyan, 4/3)

On Tuesday Senate lawmakers will weigh in for the first time on a bill to decriminalize heroin residue found on used needles. Currently it’s a felony to possess a dirty syringe. The aim of the bill is to allow people to turn in used needles for clean ones at designated places in hopes of preventing the spread of HIV and Hepatitis C. (Sutherland, 4/4)

For many of the millions of Americans caught in the growing scourge of opioid abuse, the outcome is far worse. And few places have been hit harder than Tennessee. The state said at least 1,263 Tennesseans died from opioid overdose in 2014, the most recent figure available and one that points to rampant abuse, misuse and addiction impacting millions of Tennesseans, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Nationally, 47,055 people died, up 6.5% from 2013. For every one person who dies there are 851 people in various stages of misuse, abuse and treatment, according to the CDC. That's at least 1,074,813 Tennesseans, or 1 in 6. More people died in 2014 from opioid overdose than in car accidents in Tennessee. (Fletcher, 4/3)

UCF College of Medicine is one of more than 60 medical schools in the nation to sign a pledge to require its medical students to take some form of education about prescribing pain medications like oxycodone, fentanyl and hydrocodone in order to graduate. The signing of the pledge comes as the Obama administration increases its efforts to curb the prescription pain medication abuse and heroin epidemic that's affecting many corners of the nation, including Central Florida. (Miller, 4/1)

Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (R) and the Democratic-controlled legislature are weighing options for tackling the fast-growing heroin epidemic that has taken root across the state and throughout the country. Many of the solutions focus on loosening criminal penalties for drug offenses and shifting more money — including the potential prison savings — to treatment and rehabilitation programs. (Hicks, 4/3)

Summer is coming, and the Aedes aegypti will soon be buzzing around its usual haunts in the United States — mostly in the South and Southwest. But it is already here in South Florida, hatching from kiddie pools and rain-catching flowerpots, recycling containers and bottle caps. Scientists do not believe that the United States will have a runaway Zika epidemic, but most agree that mosquitoes here will eventually acquire it and that they could start infecting people, leading to local flare-ups. (Tavernise, 4/1)

When parents suffer depression, there can be a ripple effect on children. Kids may become anxious, even sad. There may be behavior problems. Health may suffer. Recently, a large Swedish study showed that grades may decline, too, when a parent is depressed. Using data from 1984 to 1994, researchers from Philadelphia's Dornsife School of Public Health, at Drexel University, measured school grades for more than 1.1 million children in Sweden and compared them with their parents' mental health status. The study was published in a February issue of JAMA Psychiatry. (Neighmond, 4/4)

Nearly 16 million Americans are caring for a family member or friend who has Alzheimer's disease, a brain disorder that slowly destroys memory and the ability to carry out simple tasks. A new study looked at the sacrifices unpaid caregivers are making, and found that some are giving up their own basic needs. (Lapook, 3/31)

The embarrassing episode is a vivid example of what can happen when administrators, doctors, and nurses veer from their usual clinical judgment and behavior because of a patient’s special status and demands. The term VIP syndrome is believed to have been coined in 1964 by Dr. Walter Weintraub, who wrote that his Maryland psychiatric hospital was thrown into turmoil when staff struggled to respond to the relentless requests of influential patients and their relatives. (Kowalczyk, 4/3)

In joining forces with the internationally known Johns Hopkins Health System five years ago, All Children's Hospital hoped to catapult itself into the top tier of pediatric hospitals. In many ways, it succeeded. All Children's has a new medical residency program that recently attracted 1,400 applicants for 12 slots. It draws experienced physicians from top hospitals such as Boston Children's. And it has broken ground on an $85 million research and education facility. (McGrory, 4/3)

At least eight people are charged with conspiracy to funnel hundreds of thousands of dollars from MetroHealth System in an elaborate scheme that involved the creation of dozens of phony corporations mimicking actual hospital vendors. A Cuyahoga County grand jury indictment says that a team of people formed an "illicit enterprise" to steal money intended as payments to the public hospital system's vendors. (Harper, 4/1)

The two deals are very different in size and other details, but the Georgia hospital combinations announced last week reflect the fast pace of such partnerships between sometimes distant health systems. WellStar Health System announced Friday that it had just added five Tenet Healthcare hospitals in the Atlanta region, cementing WellStar’s place as the biggest health system in Georgia. (Miller, 4/3)

The federal government is pushing states to keep more low-income seniors out of nursing homes and, instead, enroll them in home and community-based programs. The shift comes as demand for long-term care is rising. By 2050, the number of people older than 85 is expected to triple to more than 18 million. These seniors tend to have the highest disability rate and the greatest need for long-term care. The tug-of-war between rising demand and controlling costs has advocates for seniors worrying about quality of care. Medicaid is one of the largest expenses for states, and a it's a program they look to for savings when budgets are tight. Medicaid spending on long-term care for seniors rose by 4 percent, to nearly $89 billion in fiscal year 2013. (Cancino, 4/4)

Radiologists and minority lawmakers are hoping to find enough money in Connecticut's cash-strapped budget to reverse last year's cut in the Medicaid reimbursement rate for radiology services, which they claim has already decreased poor and often-minority women's access to mammography service while possibly increasing their risk for undetected breast cancer. (Haigh, 4/3)

As lawmakers grapple with massive projected budget deficits and officials plan to lay off state workers, Connecticut leaders have called for employee unions to consider changes to their benefits package. That’s drawn renewed focus on the state employees’ health plan, a package that requires workers to pay less for coverage and care than typical employer-sponsored insurance, according to national surveys. Legislative leaders from both parties have suggested, among other things, raising co-pays. (Levin Becker, 4/4)

Right-to-die advocates in Washington state have created a cheaper alternative mixture of medications to help terminally ill patients legally end their lives after a drug company abruptly hiked the price of a drug commonly used for the purpose. Doctors with the End of Life Washington advocacy group concocted the alternative for about $500, after Valeant Pharmaceuticals International of Quebec acquired the drug and jacked up the price to about $3,000, The Seattle Times reported. (4/3)

Terminally ill patients in New Hampshire may soon have the right to request experimental drugs that haven’t gotten federal approval. The so-called “Right to Try” bill would allow patients with only months to live to go around the FDA approval process in the hopes of getting potentially life-saving drugs. (Ganley and Brindley, 4/4)

Before she goes to bed each night, Heather Donnell sets her alarm to go off every hour or every other hour so she can get up and tend to the complex medical needs of her 5-year-old son, Lucas. With a severe breathing and swallowing disorder, Lucas has a tracheostomy tube through which he breathes and consumes all of his calories. He also has Down syndrome and ADHD, but the task of ensuring his tubes and feeding bags are working properly takes up much of his mother’s often sleepless nights. (Nilsen, 4/3)

As Orlando Health was putting the finishing touches on its $25 million proton therapy center, a tumor began taking root in Rhea Birusingh's brain. After three years of trying, Birusingh and her husband were finally pregnant with their first child. So when she started having blurry vision and then double vision, everyone chalked it up to the pregnancy. (Miller, 4/1)

In a few months, California will begin providing full Medi-Cal coverage to all low-income children — regardless of their immigration status. Depending on whom you ask, anywhere from 170,000 to 250,000 children who live in California and are in the country illegally will qualify. State officials expect coverage to start May 16. But because the policy shift requires complex programming changes to state and county computer systems, implementation may be delayed, says Tony Cava of the state Department of Health Care Services. (Bazar, 4/4)

This week’s fare at the Angelika Film Center in New York City includes “Vaxxed: From Cover-Up to Catastrophe,” a purported documentary that began its run on Friday. If only the theater’s schedulers had been making a droll point by choosing April Fool’s Day to launch this dangerously misleading movie falsely linking vaccines to autism. Instead, they all too eagerly snatched up the film after it had been ousted on March 26 from plans for the Tribeca Film Festival later this month. (W. Ian Lipkin, 4/3)

The Tribeca Film Festival opens April 13 in New York minus one film from the original lineup: “ Vaxxed: From Cover-up to Catastrophe.” It’s a crackpot documentary purporting a connection between vaccines and autism. The decision last weekend to withdraw the film, after a public outcry, is good for the moral health of the festival — and for the physical health of children. (4/4)

Ever heard of the “therapeutic illusion?” I hadn't until I read a Perspective article in last week's New England Journal of Medicine that should be required reading for any healthcare executive serious about moving his or her organization from volume-driven to value-based care. Dr. David Casarett of the University of Pennsylvania's Perelman School of Medicine described the therapeutic illusion as physicians believing “their actions or tools are more effective than they actually are. … Their therapeutic illusion facilitates continued use of inappropriate tests and treatments.” (Merrill Goozner, 4/2)

April is Autism Awareness Month and Occupational Therapy Month. The two have more in common than the month of April. According to the Autism Society, “Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a complex developmental disability; signs typically appear during early childhood and affect a person’s ability to communicate, and interact with others. ASD is defined by a certain set of behaviors and is a 'spectrum condition' that affects individuals differently and to varying degrees.” (William K. Smithwick, 4/4)

Long known for its efforts to quash research on the dangers of guns in the home, the National Rifle Association is now attempting to intrude into the doctor’s office itself. Although the case before a Florida appeals court might seem far removed from Massachusetts, it’s part of a broad-based campaign by NRA lobbyists to block any discussion of gun violence as a pervasive public health problem that transcends questions about Second Amendment rights. (4/3)

The news that Oklahoma's Medicaid program may cut provider rates by 25 percent due to the state budget shortfall will undoubtedly lead some critics to insist this would not be happening had Oklahoma expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act. Yet while the state would have received additional federal funds for Medicaid under Obamacare expansion, that money would have been used for new enrollees, not those currently in the program. The program would still face cuts this year and provider-rate reductions would likely still be on the table. (4/4)

Iowa policymakers have ventured into the vast unknown of privatized Medicaid care with the lure of $110 million in savings for a fiscal 2017 state budget that can use all the help it can get. Three private managed-care organizations — Amerigroup, AmeriHealth and UnitedHealthcare — officially took charge Friday of handling the medical and health needs of up to 560,000 of Iowa’s most vulnerable citizens who rely on federal and state dollars for assistance. (Rod Boshart, 4/3)

President Barack Obama can convene all the task forces, panel discussions and summit meetings he wants, and they may actually be useful. But a lasting solution to America's opioid epidemic depends mostly on a meaningful change in physicians' attitudes about treating addiction. (3/31)

Undercover Orlando police officers don't have much trouble finding dealers who claim to be selling heroin. Recently, though, lab tests are showing that what officers are buying on the street isn't heroin, but something even deadlier — a painkiller known as fentanyl, typically prescribed after surgery or for patients with a terminal illness. It is as much as 50 times stronger than heroin. (Beth Kassab, 4/2)

Back in 2014, Flint water treatment workers expected they'd add corrosion control to the city's drinking water -- chemicals that would that would have prevented a public health crisis -- after the city switched its water supply. But the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality said they didn't have to. (Nancy Kaffer, 3/31)

If the agency that runs Medicare can’t even test out ways of holding down spending on prescription drugs, the entire US health care system will be worse off for it. Unfortunately, interest groups within the health care industry are trying to keep the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services from launching a common-sense experiment on lowering costs. (3/31)