How States’ Moves to Call Abortion Drugs ‘Controlled Substances’ Can Make Childbirth More Dangerous and Interfere with Legal, Safe and...
Louisiana enacted Act 246 in 2024, reclassifying the abortion pills mifepristone and misoprostol as Schedule IV controlled substances, a designation previously reserved for drugs with abuse potential. The change forces the medications into locked cabinets, adding minutes to emergency retrieval and delaying treatment for postpartum hemorrhage and miscarriage. The U.S. Supreme Court recently upheld telehealth access to mifepristone, but the state law still hampers timely care. Several other states, including South Carolina, Texas and Kentucky, are introducing comparable bills that could extend these restrictions nationwide.
Reduced Health Insurance Payments for Hospital Births Had a Bigger Impact on Sterilization Rates than Correcting an Injustice
A new study shows that a 1990s policy that reduced hospital payments for postpartum stays cut the length of birth hospitalizations, which in turn lowered the number of women receiving tubal ligations. By contrast, the 1974 Relf v. Weinberger case...
Special Courts Helps Veterans Stay Out of Jail - but Staffing Losses at VA and Cuts to Government Programs Are...
Veterans Treatment Courts (VTCs) provide an alternative to incarceration for service members grappling with substance use, mental health issues, and homelessness, operating in more than 745 courthouses across the United States. They rely on dedicated VA clinicians and federal funding—tens...
Trump’s Medicaid Fraud Crackdown May Sound Sensible, but It Could Harm Americans Who Require Long-Term Care
CMS Administrator Mehmet Oz announced a nationwide push for states to revalidate Medicaid providers deemed high‑risk, targeting home‑and‑community‑based services. The directive follows Trump‑era enforcement actions that have already threatened to withhold funds from states such as Minnesota, New York, California and...
Vagus Nerve Stimulation Shows Promise as a Way to Counter Alzheimer’s Disease- and Age-Related Memory Loss
Researchers are investigating vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) as a way to preserve the health of the locus coeruleus, a tiny brainstem region where tau protein first accumulates and predicts Alzheimer’s disease. The locus coeruleus produces norepinephrine, essential for sleep, attention,...
Power Outages Can Threaten the Lives of Medical Device Users – Knowing Who Is Most at Risk Will Help Cities...
A new study of 2,600 medically dependent households reveals four distinct risk profiles during power outages, highlighting a vulnerable 7% of low‑income urban renters who lack backup power. Outages are becoming more frequent and longer, with most home medical devices...
Cancer Vaccines Could Transform Treatment and Prevention – but Misinformation About mRNA Vaccines Threatens Their Potential
Scientists are accelerating development of mRNA cancer vaccines, with more than 120 clinical trials targeting melanoma, brain, breast, lung and prostate tumors. Early studies, such as personalized vaccines for glioblastoma, demonstrate rapid immune activation and improved survival. Simultaneously, a false...
Magic Mushroom-Infused Products Appear in Colorado Gas Stations – What Public Health Officials Want Consumers to Know
Colorado health officials have seized and destroyed PolkaDot‑branded chocolate bars, gummies and shots sold in gas stations that were marketed as mushroom blends but contained psilocybin, psilocin and synthetic tryptamines. The products bypassed FDA oversight by exploiting the dietary supplement...
My Research on Wheelchair Basketball Challenges One of the Biggest Assumptions About Sex Differences in Sports
A new study of elite wheelchair basketball players finds that performance gaps between women and men are minimal, with classification severity—not sex—explaining most differences. Sensors tracked acceleration, speed and distance across international games, revealing that athletes with less severe impairments...