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President Joe Biden is taking steps to expand access to abortion medication and contraception, the latest moves by his administration to counter a wave of state abortion bans while he makes reproductive rights a centerpiece of his reelection bid. The new actions include expanding coverage for no-cost contraception through the Affordable Care Act under a new guidance from federal agencies. Federal employees will also receive greater access to contraception under guidelines issued to certain insurers. Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra is also expected to send a letter to private insurance companies and state Medicaid and Medicare programs reinforcing that they must provide no-cost contraception to people they serve. (Garrison, 1/22)

President Biden said Monday that women in the U.S. face a cruel reality in the aftermath of Roe v. Wade’s demise, outlining the impact laws in red states that restrict abortion access have on women. Biden is expected to make abortion rights a major part of his reelection argument in the fall. On Monday, the president began remarks at a meeting with the White House reproductive rights task force by talking about women being turned away in emergency rooms and forced to go to court to fight for reproductive care. (Gangitano, 1/22)

President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris will share the stage on Tuesday in Virginia as they campaign for abortion rights, a top issue for Democrats in an election expected to feature a rematch with Donald Trump, the former Republican president. Biden and Harris will be joined by their spouses, first lady Jill Biden and second gentleman Doug Emhoff. It’s the first time the four of them have appeared together since the campaign began, a reflection of the importance that Democrats are putting on abortion this year. (Long and Megerian, 1/23)

President Biden has two positions on abortion: He's personally uncomfortable with it, but publicly adamant that a woman has a right to choose. Biden's ambivalent stance allows him to signal to voters that he accepts — but doesn't celebrate — abortion. It's a position that puts Biden in the center of the gray zone of American public opinion on abortion. (Nichols, 1/22)

White House officials and congressional Democrats are marking the 51st anniversary of Roe v. Wade with a renewed urgency — and framing the 2024 election as pivotal to restoring federal abortion protections. (Panetta, 1/22)

Teen fertility rates in Texas increased for the first time in 15 years in 2022, the year after the state implemented a six-week abortion ban, according to a report published Friday from the University of Houston’s Institute for Research on Women, Gender & Sexuality. The state’s overall fertility rate, or births per 1,000 women aged 15-44, also rose in 2022 for the first time since 2014, with the sharpest increase among Hispanic women, the report said. (Gill, 1/22)

Abortion took the spotlight once again Monday at the State House, as a proposal to enshrine the right to “reproductive autonomy” in the Maine Constitution got a hearing on the would-be 51st anniversary of Roe v. Wade. But the Democrat-led resolution will fail unless a few Republicans back it, since proposed constitutional amendments require approval from two-thirds of each chamber to reach the November ballot. Democrats control the House, Senate and governor’s office but still need several members of the minority party to push it through the House of Representatives. (Kobin, 1/22)

An update to Minnesota's equal rights amendment, which would add language to the state constitution if approved by voters, will include provisions aimed at protecting access to abortion when advocates push for it this year. The new version reads as follows: "All persons shall be guaranteed equal rights under the laws of this state. The state shall not discriminate against any person in intent or effect on account of race, color, national origin, ancestry, disability or sex, including but not limited to, pregnancy, pregnancy outcomes, and reproductive freedom, gender identity and gender expression, or sexual orientation." (Cummings, 1/22)

A proposal seeking to ban abortion 14 weeks after "probable fertilization" does not include exceptions for cases of rape or incest because "a 14-week timeframe is a long enough timeframe to make a decision," a bill co-author told lawmakers on Monday. Lawmakers on the Assembly Committee on Health, Aging and Long-Term Care heard testimony on a bill introduced Friday that would ban abortion after 14 weeks of pregnancy except in situations where the mother's life or health would be endangered without the procedure — a measure that would reduce the timeframe for legal abortions in Wisconsin by six weeks. (Opoien, 1/22)

The head of the Abortion Fund of Ohio had a sinking feeling as she looked at its end-of-year finances last month. The fund had paid out $1.5 million in 2023 to help close to 4,400 patients get abortions — up from 1,175 the year before — and the pace wasn’t sustainable. If the fund didn’t take a pause for a few weeks, she feared it would run out of money and have to close for good. (Goldhill, 1/23)

Over the past several months, a handful of community pharmacies in states where abortion remains legal have begun to take advantage of a new rule that allows them to fill prescriptions for the abortion pill mifepristone. Prior to the rule change, which was finalized last January by the Food and Drug Administration, pregnant people had to get the drug directly from their doctor or by mail if using telemedicine, depending on the laws in their state. Reproductive health experts have said relaxing that requirement could help ease the growing burden on abortion clinics in states where abortion is legal. (Adams, 1/22)

Mission Hospital risks losing Medicare and Medicaid funding because of deficiencies in care that were so severe, state inspectors concluded last month, that they “posed immediate jeopardy to patients’ health and safety,” Asheville Watchdog has learned. “Immediate jeopardy” is the most serious deficiency possible for a hospital. (Jones, 1/23)

A patient who came to the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania-Cedar Avenue unable to move the thumb on their swollen, lacerated hand waited four days for doctors to splint the broken bone. ... State inspectors cited HUP-Cedar for an “unacceptable delay” in emergency care, noting it could have led to further injury and increased the patient’s risk of death in an inspection report released earlier this month. (Gantz, 1/22)

Intermountain Healthcare may shutter a network of clinics within weeks if no one steps up to take it over. Saltzer Health of Nampa, Idaho, will close March 29 absent a buyer, the provider announced in a news release Thursday. The multispecialty medical practice, which Intermountain acquired in 2020, has struggled to surmount financial challenges arising from the COVID-19 pandemic, the news release said. (DeSilva, 1/22)

Hospital Sisters Health System is closing two hospitals in Western Wisconsin due to “prolonged operational and financial stress,” as well as other lingering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, the system announced Monday. Prevea Health, a physician network that partners with the health system to provide primary and specialty care services, will also close its locations across Chippewa Valley. About 1,400 clinicians and support staff employed by Hospital Sisters Health System and Prevea Health will be affected by the closures. (Devereaux, 1/22)

A former nurse has filed an antitrust class action lawsuit against UPMC that she hopes will ultimately include all the health system's nurses. The accusation is straightforward: by acquiring 28 health care systems over at least two decades, UPMC has become a monopoly, eliminating competition so they can dictate wage scales and cut health care services. "UPMC has a monopoly in western Pennsylvania, where through their acquisitions, they control the market," said Daniel Levin, the attorney for former UPMC nurse Victoria Ross. (Delano, 1/22)

A lawsuit related to a wide-ranging healthcare data breach affecting nearly 9 million people last year has been filed against Bon Secours Mercy Health System and Perry Johnson & Associates, a third-party transcription services provider. The suit, filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Nevada, stems from a data breach that occurred between March and May 2023. (DeSilva, 1/22)

When Aidan Hettler showed up for a job interview at the Sedgwick County Health Center in the summer of 2022, he was prepared to tell the hospital’s board that he absolutely should not get the job. He had been talked into applying for the role by somebody at the hospital, despite having no health care experience to speak of — and he was just 22 years old. (Porter, 1/22)

Doctors often don’t have a lot of time to chat with patients during medical appointments — which means that conversations about nutrition can wind up taking a backseat to other concerns. But during a recent weeklong course at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, preventive cardiologist Stephen Devries enlisted two dozen students in the mission to integrate nutrition into clinical medicine — changing the way medicine is taught and health care is delivered in the process. (Cooney, 1/22)

Even AI optimists don't envision the technology fundamentally remaking the U.S. health care system anytime soon, but there's widespread agreement that it has the potential to vastly improve the quality of care and trim costly waste. The scale of change that AI could bring to health care not only impacts patients but also the millions of people the system employs — who will ultimately shape how widely it's adopted. (Owens, 1/22)

�鶹Ů�� Health News: What's Indoor Air Quality Like In Long-Term Care Facilities During Wildfires? Worse Than You'd Think

Every year, wildfires across the western U.S. and Canada send plumes of smoke into the sky. When that smoke blows into southwestern Idaho’s Treasure Valley, it blankets Boise-area residents in dirty air. They include seniors living in long-term care facilities, many of whom are considered an at-risk population for smoke exposure because of respiratory or cardiac diseases. (Mohr, 1/23)

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) today warned clinicians about errors in respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) administration in young children and pregnant women, which follows the release of two newly approved RSV vaccines for adults and an injectable RSV monoclonal antibody preventive called nirsevimab (Beyfortus) for babies and young children. The events involving children younger than 2 years old who received Pfizer's Abrysvo or GSK's Arexvy were rare, with 25 such cases reported. Most occurred in babies younger than 8 months and in outpatient settings. Meanwhile, about 128 instances of pregnant women mistakenly getting Arexvy were reported, also most commonly reported in outpatient settings, including pharmacies. Abrysvo is the only RSV vaccine recommended for pregnant women as a tool for protecting young babies from RSV infection. (Schnirring, 1/23)

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Monday estimated COVID subvariant JN.1 to account for about 85.7% of cases in the United States, as of Jan. 19. The agency said JN.1 remains the most widely circulating variant of SARS-CoV-2 in the country and globally. There is no evidence at present that JN.1 causes more severe disease than other variants, the CDC said, adding that currently available vaccines are expected to increase protection against the variant. (1/22)

As a surge of respiratory viruses, including COVID-19 and influenza, continue to spread across the United States, experts are warning it could lead to a rise in cardiovascular complications. ... Dr. Deepak Bhatt, director of Mount Sinai Fuster Heart Hospital in New York City, said there are two potential routes by which these infections can contribute to heart problems. "The more common pathway is if somebody gets really sick, say with influenza, running a high fever or getting dehydrated, getting hospitalized because of complications of influenza," he told ABC News. "That's a setup for having heart problems." (Kekatos, 1/22)

Coughs are common during every winter virus season. But this year it seems like more people than usual are complaining about a cough that just won’t go away. Cathy Conger, 60, who works at a vintage furniture store in Washington, said she’s had a persistent cough for a month now after traveling over the holidays. She often wakes up coughing in the middle of the night. “I’m probably going to just keep the bowl of cough drops by my bed,” she said. (Amenabar, 1/22)

Children's Health reports a 40% jump in the number of children it has treated for the flu at clinics, doctor's offices and emergency rooms last week compared to the week before. The Centers for Disease Control says 46.9% of children have gotten their flu vaccine this season, well below normal; however, Children's Health says COVID-19 and RSV cases in children are declining. ... The Texas Department of State Health Services launched a new dashboard looking at real-time and historical respiratory virus cases. (Jenkins, 1/22)

Testimony in former President Donald Trump's defamation trial brought by E. Jean Carroll was postponed for a day because of COVID-19 concerns. Before proceedings began Monday, Alina Habba, Trump's lawyer, asked Judge Lewis Kaplan, who is overseeing the trial, for a one-day adjournment when she said she wasn't feeling well after one or both of her parents were exposed to COVID. (Venegas, 1/22)

A review of alleged data manipulation in studies involving four top scientists at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute has led to plans to retract six papers and correct 31 manuscripts, the institute confirmed on Monday. (Chen and Wosen, 1/22)

Cancer is now the leading cause of death among those who are HIV positive. The finding was announced in a report released last week from the American Cancer Society (ACS). Titled "Cancer Facts & Figures 2024," the report noted that at least 10 cancers are associated with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection, including non-Hodgkin lymphoma, Kaposi sarcoma, cervical cancer, liver cancer, anal cancer, lung cancer and Hodgkin lymphoma. HIV-infected people are also 10 times more likely to develop infection-related cancers compared to the general population, the report stated. (Rudy, 1/23)

Gilead Sciences said Monday that Trodelvy, its “smart-bomb” medicine that combines an antibody with chemotherapy, did not significantly extend the lives of patients with metastatic non-small cell lung cancer when given after a first treatment failed. (Herper, 1/22)

GSK, Pfizer and other pharmaceutical companies are urging a judge in Delaware this week to find that evidence plaintiffs' lawyers want to use in about 72,000 lawsuits claiming that the discontinued heartburn drug Zantac caused cancer is not supported by science. If they are successful, that could end much of the long-running litigation over the drug and greatly reduce the risk of hefty damage awards or settlements, which has weighed on companies' shares in recent years. (Pierson, 1/22)

At least 921 chemicals are thought to pose risks for breast cancer, according to research published in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives and sponsored by Silent Spring Institute, a Massachusetts nonprofit focused on the environment and women’s health. The list developed by the research team includes 279 chemicals described as mammary carcinogens and already identified as causing mammary tumors in animals. It also includes 642 chemicals that alter the body’s hormones, stimulating cells to increase the production of estrogen or progesterone, which has been linked to a greater risk for breast cancer. The researchers studied data on rodent tumors, along with endocrine activity and genotoxicity to identify cancer-causing agents. (Searing, 1/22)

Millions of American women over age 40 receive regular mammograms to screen for breast cancer. About half of them turn out to have dense breast tissue — which makes screening significantly more complicated. (Merelli, 1/23)

Dexter Scott King, the youngest child of civil rights leaders the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King, died of cancer Monday. In a press release, The King Center said the 62-year-old died peacefully in his sleep after a battle with prostate cancer. “He gave it everything and battled this terrible disease until the end,” said Leah Weber, Dexter Scott King’s wife for the last 11 years, according to Fox 5 Atlanta. “As with all the challenges in his life, he faced this hurdle with bravery and might.” Named after the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Alabama where his father had once served as pastor, King was only 7 years old when his father was assassinated. (Daniels, 1/22)

New York City will purchase millions of dollars of medical debt and then erase it in effort to help as many as 500,000 residents, Mayor Eric Adams announced on Monday. The program involves partnering with a nonprofit organization, RIP Medical Debt, that buys unpaid medical debt from hospitals at a steep discount and then clears it. The city will invest $18 million to relieve more than $2 billion in medical debt for hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers, Adams said. (Gibson, 1/22)

The Blacksburg-based Secular Society announced Friday that it has purchased an additional $12.1 million in medical debt for 14,434 Southwest Virginia citizens — and that debt is now wiped out. The latest round of relief comes after the nonprofit has retired millions more of debt in the past. To be eligible for purchase and abolition, the debt must be owned by someone with a family income less than four times the federal poverty level or for whom a medical debt is 5% or more of their annual income, according to a Secular Society news release. (1/20)

An unusual bipartisan coalition of lawmakers is teaming up on drug pricing legislation, proving the issue may defy election-year partisanship as health care costs remain a top voter concern. The effort highlights the increased scrutiny some influential Republicans are giving an industry the GOP has long allied itself with. (Sullivan, 1/23)

Pharmaceutical companies are doing anything they can to stop President Biden’s Medicare program from being able to negotiate prices for their products, including suing the government. Experts say their efforts might actually benefit Biden by reminding voters that he’s taking on big drug companies. (Wilkerson, 1/23)

There’s a pharmacy in the White House — or, at least, there’s a sign that says “Pharmacy,” though the people in charge insist it isn’t one. Whatever they call it, the office has had enough internal complaints to warrant a government watchdog investigation. (Trang, 1/23)

The battle to keep fentanyl off New York City streets continues. Federal agents seized the highest amount of fentanyl ever in the Big Apple last year. And of all the fentanyl seized in the United States last year, New York City accounted for 10% of it. CBS New York recently sat down for an exclusively interview with the Drug Enforcement Administration's Special Agent in Charge. "This has been the biggest drug threat we have ever seen in the history of DEA," Frank Tarentino said. (Bisram, 1/22)

Jennifer Crumbley, the mother of the Oxford, Mich., teen who killed four students in 2021, heads to trial Tuesday in a high-profile case that marks the first time parents of a school shooter have faced involuntary manslaughter charges related to their child’s crime. The Crumbley parents acknowledge that they bought their son a gun in the days before the Nov. 30, 2021, shooting at Oxford High School, but they are not accused of knowing about their son’s plan. Prosecutors say the parents gave their son access to a deadly weapon while ignoring his mental health struggles, including ones raised by his teachers on the day of the shooting. (Bellware, 1/22)

Some patients resist getting more treatment because they're afraid their guns will be confiscated. This is the reality of suicide prevention work in a state with one of the highest gun ownership rates in the United States. For most of the last decade, Wyoming has also had one of the highest suicide rates and, specifically, high gun suicide rates. Firearms are used in roughly 75% of suicides in the Cowboy State, compared with just over 50% nationally. (Siegler, 1/23)

Talkspace said it is partnering with the American Federation of Teachers to offer therapy and other mental health resources to union members. The partnership between the digital behavioral health company and the union representing 1.7 million workers including teachers, nurses and retirees exemplifies a strategy priority for the company this year, said Natalie Cummins, Talkspace's chief business officer. (DeSilva, 1/22)

Lori Kelley was decorating her Concord home for Christmas when she pierced her finger on a shard of glass from a broken ornament. It seemed like a minor injury at first. Kelley wasn’t in pain, and the glass hadn’t cut deeply enough to draw blood. “I totally ignored it,” she said. Two days later, she was hospitalized with a “horrible” bacterial infection that required surgery. Her procedure was covered thanks to Medicaid expansion. (Baxley, 1/23)

Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley, the head of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston, condemned physician-assisted suicide at a conference concerning the value of human life over the weekend in Washington, D.C., according to a Catholic news service. O’Malley forewarned that “the next major assaults” on the value of life over the next quarter-century “are going to come from those pushing physician-assisted suicide and euthanasia,” according to OSV News. An archdiocese spokesperson confirmed the report as accurate on Monday. (McDonald, 1/22)

At least seven laws passed by Texas legislators and signed by the governor last year target LGBTQ people in violation of federal and international human rights law, four LGBTQ advocacy groups wrote Monday in a petition to the United Nations. The groups in a joint letter of allegation submitted Monday to 17 independent experts, working groups and special rapporteurs at the U.N. wrote that Texas leaders during the state’s last legislative session intentionally targeted the LGBTQ community through hostile laws that have upended the lives of LGBTQ Texans. (Migdon, 1/22)

A Florida House panel on Monday backed a measure that would require state-issued identification cards to reflect a person's sex assigned at birth and impose requirements for insurers who cover gender-affirming care. The Republican-controlled House Select Committee on Health Innovation approved the bill (HB 1639) along party lines, despite opposition from transgender people and their allies. (1/22)

The rollout of the world’s first malaria vaccine began in Cameroon on Monday, which is said to be a “transformative chapter in Africa’s public health history”. The RTS,S vaccine – 662,000 doses of it – will be administered to children in the west African country, the first to be vaccinated after successful trials of the drug in Ghana, Kenya and Malawi between 2019 and 2021. It marks a scaling up of the fight against malaria in Africa, where 95% of deaths from the disease occur, most among children under five. (Ahmed and Kouagheu, 1/22)

U.K. health officials on Monday urged millions of parents to book their children for missed measles, mumps and rubella shots during a sharp increase in the number of measles cases and the lowest vaccination rates in a decade. The National Health Service is launching a publicity campaign after figures showed there were about 250 confirmed measles cases in parts of England last year. Most cases were in children under 10 years old. (1/22)

A deadly salmonella outbreak linked to cantaloupes has ended, the CDC said. The statement comes after health officials in recent weeks issued a flurry of warnings and recalls over the melons. The CDC said on Friday that cantaloupes recalled in connection with the bacteria outbreak had passed their use-by-dates and were no longer for sale. Sweeping recalls of whole and pre-sliced cantaloupes from brands such as Malichita and Rudy began last November, with major grocers such as Kroger, Trader Joe's and Walmart also pulling melons from their shelves, according to the CDC. (Napolitano, 1/22)

Weighted blankets have become popular with adults suffering from insomnia or anxiety, who say the product’s comforting pressure makes sleep come more easily. But some companies, including Nested Bean and Dreamland Baby, are now marketing weighted sleep products — including wearable blankets and swaddles — for babies, even newborns. That’s raising alarm among pediatricians and many product safety experts, including those at Consumer Reports, who say that these products are being sold with no safety standards in place and little to no evidence that they’re safe. (Kirchner, 1/22)

Myra Kinnnie, an Ocoee resident, uses hearing aids. Every morning, she toasts a plain bagel from a local shop in her kitchen, and watches TV. However, hearing loss has stripped away the enjoyment of these activities. She can no longer hear the toaster oven or TV. Kinnie says her family has dealt with hearing loss for generations. (Mason, 1/22)

The human blood system is in a constant state of turnover. First-line immune defenders, like neutrophils, need to be replaced after just four to eight hours, platelets can last a week, red blood cells up to four months, and some white blood cells, like memory B cells, live for decades. The heroic task of constantly replenishing these ranks, and making sure the balance of different types of blood cells is right, falls to a primitive reserve of stem cells that reside deep in the bone marrow. (Molteni, 1/22)

Samsung Electronics Co. is exploring the development of noninvasive glucose monitoring and continuous blood pressure checking, setting its sights on ambitious health-care goals in a race with Apple Inc. and other tech giants. The work is part of a broader push to put health features in a range of devices, including its just-announced Galaxy Ring, said Samsung executive Hon Pak, who is overseeing the effort. The company aims to eventually give consumers a complete picture of their well-being via sensors on different parts of the body and around the home. (Gurman and Lee, 1/22)

While politicians and policymakers amp up calls for more brutal crackdowns on fentanyl smuggling, a “new” class of synthetic opioids has been showing up in overdose victims with the potential to make America look back on the fentanyl crisis as “the good old days.” Chemists refer loosely to this category of drugs as “nitazenes,” even though the term is incorrect; it should be “benzimidazole-based opioids.”  (Dr. Jeffrey A. Singer and Josh Bloom, 1/23)

Your child may be struggling with anxiety, as 32% of teens have anxiety disorder. It is hard to see your child suffer and not know what to do. You want to help but your instincts may be making their anxiety worse. (Quincy Kadin, 1/23)

January offers a bounty for purveyors of snake oil. In the wake of holiday season excesses, a slew of detox diets, immune-boosting concoctions and an avalanche of dubious supplements emerge to profit on our insecurities. Across social media, influencers and celebrities push a litany of miraculous medicines—to our collective detriment. (David Robert Grimes, 1/22)

As we usher in a new year, Cook County is setting forth a bold New Year's resolution: helping to abolish medical debt through our transformative Medical Debt Relief Initiative (MDRI). Cook County is well known for its criminal justice reform efforts, but we recognize that true justice extends even further into accessible and affordable healthcare for all. (Toni Preckwinkle, 1/22)

“Dry January” has been picking up momentum in recent years. Last month, a survey found that nearly half of adults 21 and older who drink alcohol reported being “very likely” or “somewhat likely” to take part in the month-long abstention from alcohol, with Gen Z respondents expressing the most enthusiasm. These are promising statistics, because trying Dry January can lead to both short- and long-term improvements in health in four key ways. (Leana S. Wen, 1/23)

With the new year, three upper respiratory viruses have begun to spread among Americans. COVID-19, seasonal influenza and respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV, have all been infecting people and making them sick. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has been doing what it does well, which is the tracking of these viruses. So where does the nation stand right now, and should you be concerned? (Sheldon H. Jacobson, 1/23)

In medicine, inertia can be a strangely powerful force, but Virginia Apgar never succumbed to it. She brought incredible energy to her work in anesthesia, neonatology, and dysmorphology (the study of birth defects) and questioned the status quo when she thought it might save lives. With gratitude for her tireless work, we have reevaluated the eponymous health assessment Apgar developed more than 70 years ago and concluded that one of its components — skin color — should be abandoned. It’s a step Apgar herself might have encouraged; she knew this part of her evaluation method was weaker than the others. We have a chance now to correct that bias. (Amos Grunebaum, Monique De Four Jones, Dawnette Lewis and Frank A. Chervenak, 1/23)