Month: April 2023

India has returned to mask mandates in some areas after rising coronavirus cases linked to a new variant called Arcturus, or XBB.1.16. View original article Contributor: Victoria Bisset

Researchers said racial bias was the only explanation for excessive testing of Black mothers at a Pennsylvania health system. View original article Contributor: Roni Caryn Rabin

In an emergency application, lawyers for the government asked the justices to stay all of a Texas judge’s ruling suspending a commonly used abortion medication. View original article Contributor: Adam Liptak

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — The Republican-dominated Florida Legislature on Thursday approved a ban on abortions after six weeks of pregnancy, a proposal supported by GOP Gov. Ron DeSantis as he prepares for an expected presidential run. DeSantis is expected to sign the bill into law. Florida currently prohibits abortions after 15 weeks. A six-week ban would … Read more

When former U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) commissioner Dr. Jane Henney approved the abortion pill mifepristone in 2000, she knew the decision was an important one for women’s health. It would also become incredibly contentious. Henney, now 76, finds herself still defending that approval more than two decades later in 2023. She talked to … Read more

The legal questions of if and how the decades-old abortion pill mifepristone can be used are wending their way through the courts. So far, three decisions have been made. In the first, on Apr. 7, a Texas judge ruled to strip mifepristone of its the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval. In the second, … Read more

In a new report from the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) tracking U.S. suicide rates from 2001 to 2021, researchers report that suicide rates increased in 2021 after a two-year decline. In 2021, overall rates among males and females of all age groups increased by about 4%: the largest one year spike since 2001. … Read more

The crisis of maternal mortality in the United States continues to escalate. After rising steadily over time, annual death rates skyrocketed by a shocking 40% in 2021 alone, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. What’s more, Black women are 2.6 times more likely to die of maternity-related causes than white women. Such … Read more

AUSTIN, Texas — A federal appeals court preserved access to the abortion pill mifepristone for now but reduced the period of pregnancy when the drug can be used and said it could not be dispensed by mail. The ruling late Wednesday temporarily narrowed a decision by a lower court judge in Texas that had completely … Read more