ABC News: Louisiana Governor Signs Bill Classifying Abortion Pills As Controlled Substances Into Law
Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry said Friday he has signed a first-of-its-kind bill making abortion pills controlled substances into law. The law puts the abortion pill regimen -- mifepristone and misoprostol -- in the same category as opioids and other addictive medications. The law makes it illegal for people to possess the drugs without a prescription in Louisiana, which has a near-total ban on abortion. The bill does say the drugs can be used for non-abortion reasons and women will not be punished. The bill will go into effect on Oct. 1. (Deliso and Oppenheim, 5/24)

NPR: Nebraska Voters Could Face Two Conflicting Abortion Questions This Fall 
Opposing petition drives in Nebraska could present voters with competing choices on abortion. The one with the most votes wins. (Rembert, 5/27)

On 'crisis centers' —

The Kansas City Star: Federal Guidelines Could Cut Spending On Pregnancy Centers
For years, Missouri lawmakers have redirected millions from a federal grant program intended to help low-income families to a state program aimed at steering women away from receiving abortions despite the state’s strict ban on the procedure. (Sago, 5/27)

Slate: A Crisis Pregnancy Center Is Accusing A Former Patient Of Domestic Terrorism. She's Fighting Back.
Hannah Kamke wanted medical care—she wanted to confirm whether she was pregnant, and if so, she wanted to terminate. Instead, she stumbled onto a crisis pregnancy center that she claims lied to her about her pregnancy status and later slapped her with a lawsuit accusing her of domestic terrorism. Today, CompassCare, an anti-abortion “crisis pregnancy center,” is trying to weaponize a pro-choice law known as the FACE Act against Kamke in federal court while publicly disparaging her as a violent and dangerous extremist. Kamke is fighting back, accusing the clinic of misconduct and demanding damages of her own. (Stern, 5/28)

More abortion news —

The New York Times: The Conservative Christian Network That Took Down Roe V. Wade
It happened almost by accident, over cocktails. Exactly the kind of accident that Leonard Leo intended to happen at his Federalist Society’s annual conference — a three-day gathering of the conservative tribe and a strategy session for right-wing lawyers, officials and judges that drew both big names and those who had lower profiles but were no less ambitious. Nine days after Donald Trump won the 2016 election, the halls of the Mayflower Hotel, just blocks from the White House, were adorned with twinkling Christmas lights and abuzz with the possibilities of a future that had changed overnight. Hillary Clinton, the woman the anti-abortion movement feared more than perhaps anyone, had failed to win the presidency. And Leo and the conservative legal movement that he worked for years to create were about to reclaim power. With that power would come the chance to do what seemed unthinkable until this moment: strategize to take down Roe v. Wade. (Dias and Lerer, 5/28)

NBC News: The Rise Of ‘Abortion Abolitionists’ Targeting Women, Doctors And Donald Trump
Operation Save America members promote legislation that would pave the way for women to be prosecuted and potentially locked up for ending a pregnancy. (Atkins, 5/26)

The New York Times: The Unlikely Women Fighting For Abortion Rights 
For a long time, many women who had abortions because of catastrophic fetal diagnoses told their stories only privately. Grieving pregnancies they dearly wanted and fearing the stigma of abortion, they sought the closely guarded comfort of online communities identified by the way many doctors had described the procedure — TFMR, or “termination for medical reasons.” In the two years since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, their pain has been compounded into anger by new abortion bans across the country. While these women account for a fraction of abortions in the United States, they have emerged as the most powerful voices in the nation’s post-Roe debate, speaking out against bans with their stories of being forced across state lines and left to feel like criminals in seeking care. (Zernike, 5/27)

Stat: Sickle Cell Pregnancy Risks Amplified In A State With Abortion Ban 
Here are some things A. was told when she arrived at the hospital one night in June 2023. That she couldn’t have the pain medicine she usually got for a sickle cell crisis because she was six weeks pregnant, but she could have Tylenol. That if she just took her blood thinner everything would be fine. That she needed to leave, and if she still felt bad by the time she’d wheelchaired out into the parking lot, she could turn around and check herself back into the emergency room. She asked to speak to someone higher up. She was angry, but mostly she was in pain: crying pain, pain that made it hard to move and hard to speak, pain that other people couldn’t understand, that sometimes made her wish to be in a coma, anything to make it go away. Her blood pressure was spiking. She knew from experience that, left untreated, this kind of crisis could lead to a seizure. (Boodman, 5/28)

WCVB: Massachusetts Man Accused Of Misleading Woman Into Taking Abortion Pill, DA Says
A Massachusetts man is accused of misleading a woman he was dating into taking medication to end her pregnancy, the Middlesex County District Attorney said. Authorities say Robert Kawada, 43, of Brookline, was charged with poisoning, assault and battery with a dangerous weapon on a pregnant person and assault and battery on a household or family member. According to authorities, Kawada and the victim were dating and the victim became pregnant. Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan and Watertown Chief of Police Justin Hanrahan say Kawada secretly gave the victim medication under the guise that he was giving her iron pills and vitamins. Authorities said the medication was actually intended to end the pregnancy. (Ganley, 5/27)

AP: World Health Assembly Hopes To Reinforce Pandemic Preparedness After Bold Treaty Project Stalls
Member countries kicked off the World Health Organization’s annual assembly on Monday with hopes of improving global readiness for deadly outbreaks like COVID-19, after an ambitious “pandemic treaty” ran aground last week. Health officials are racing to get the world to agree to new ways to prepare for and fight an inevitable future pandemic. COVID-19 is fading into history as elections and crises like climate change and war compete for the public’s attention. (Keaten, 5/27)

The New York Times: Countries Fail To Agree On Treaty To Prepare The World For The Next Pandemic 
Countries around the globe have failed to reach consensus on the terms of a treaty that would unify the world in a strategy against the inevitable next pandemic, trumping the nationalist ethos that emerged during Covid-19. The deliberations, which were scheduled to be a central item at the weeklong meeting of the World Health Assembly beginning Monday in Geneva, aimed to correct the inequities in access to vaccines and treatments between wealthier nations and poorer ones that became glaringly apparent during the Covid pandemic. (Mandavilli, 5/24)

More on the spread of covid —

The Washington Post: Covid Wave Shapes Up For Summer But Is Unlikely To Spark Concern
By now, it’s as familiar as sunscreen hitting the shelves: Americans are headed into another summer with new coronavirus variants and a likely uptick in cases. This is shaping up to be the first covid wave with barely any federal pressure to limit transmission and little data to even declare a surge. People are no longer advised to isolate for five days after testing positive. Free tests are hard to come by. Soon, uninsured people will no longer be able to get coronavirus vaccines free. (Nirappil and Malhi, 5/26)

Los Angeles Times: COVID Rise In California: How To Protect Yourself From FLiRT 
There are growing signs of an uptick in COVID-19 in California thanks to the new FLiRT subvariants. It’s far too early to know if FLiRT will be a major change in the COVID picture, and so far the impacts have been small. But health officials are taking note and are urging Californians — especially those at risk — to be prepared. (Lin II, 5/28)

Reuters: Novavax Awaits FDA Decision On Whether Its Next COVID Shot Can Be Offered In US
Novavax will only be able to offer a COVID-19 vaccine in the United States this autumn if regulators accept the shot it has started manufacturing that targets a variant that was dominant earlier this year, the company said. Novavax's updated vaccine targets a variant called JN.1, which is in line with European recommendations. The European Union's regulator told vaccine makers last month to update their vaccines for that variant because they would likely be effective against its descendant lineages. (Erman, 5/24)

Also —

CIDRAP: WHO: COVID-19 Pandemic Reversed Decade Of Life Expectancy Gains
The World Health Organization (WHO) published a new report suggesting the COVID-19 pandemic undid a decade of life expectancy at birth and healthy life expectancy gains (HALE), with global expectancy levels now matching those last seen in 2012. "Not only has the pandemic set back healthy longevity worldwide by years, it also reversed the previous trends of shifting disease burden to noncommunicable diseases," the report said. (Soucheray, 5/24)

The Washington Post: Long-Covid Patients Of Color Are Tired Of Being Sick And Neglected 
A mild covid infection at the start of the pandemic has thrown Jeanine Hays’s immune system out of whack, she said, as her husband ticked off ailments the way drug commercials list side effects. Chronic hives. Hair loss. Tinnitus. Severe nerve pain. Extreme fluctuations in blood pressure. Allergic reactions to synthetic fabrics and processed foods. (Johnson, 5/28)

Reuters: Mayo Clinic Must Face Religious Bias Claims Over COVID Vaccine Policy, Court Rules 
A U.S. appeals court on Friday revived a lawsuit accusing the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota of illegally firing five employees who refused on religious grounds to receive the COVID-19 vaccine or be regularly tested for the virus. A unanimous three-judge panel of the St. Louis-based 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the judge who tossed out the consolidated lawsuits last year wrongly ruled that the workers had not connected their objections to Mayo's COVID-19 policies with sincere Christian religious beliefs. (Wiessner, 5/24)

Reuters: Raw Milk Containing Bird Flu Virus Infects Mice In Study
Feeding raw milk contaminated with bird flu to mice infected them with the virus, adding to evidence that consumption of unpasteurized milk is not safe for humans, according to a study published on Friday in the New England Journal of Medicine. Bird flu has caused serious or fatal infections globally among people in close contact with infected wild birds or poultry, and scientists have long viewed the virus as being capable of causing a global health crisis. (5/24)

Reuters: Bird Flu Detected In Tissue Samples Of US Dairy Cow Sent To Slaughter, USDA Says
Bird flu virus particles were found in tissue samples taken from one dairy cow sent to slaughter at a U.S. meat processing plant, but none were detected in samples from 95 other cattle, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) said on Friday. Meat from the animals was prevented from entering the nation's food supply, USDA said. (Polansek and Mishra, 5/24)

U.S. News & World Report: Scientists Developing MRNA-Based Vaccine Against H5N1 Bird Flu
An experimental mRNA vaccine against the H5N1 avian flu is highly effective in preventing severe illness and death in lab animals, researchers report. The vaccine was created using the same techniques that produced the COVID vaccines. The experimental vaccine elicited a strong immune response in lab mice and ferrets, researchers reported May 23 in the journal Nature Communications. (Thompson, 5/28)

KFF Health News: Journalists Zero In On Bird Flu And Weight Loss Drugs 
KFF Health News’ editor-at-large for public health, Céline Gounder, discussed the second case of bird flu found in humans in the United States with “CBS Morning News” on May 24. ... KFF Health News contributor Andy Miller discussed weight loss drugs on WUGA’s “The Georgia Health Report” on May 17. (5/25)

Healthline: 'Forever' Chemicals and Other Endocrine-Disruptors May Increase Child Obesity Risk
Prenatal exposure to various endocrine-disrupting chemicals — including metals, plastics, and pesticides — have been linked to a cluster of health problems in childhood, including obesity, according to a large multi-national European study. The first-of-its-kind study, published in JAMA Network Open May 23, looked at the effects of 45 different endocrine- disrupting chemicals (EDCs) on children who were exposed to them in utero. EDCs can be naturally occurring or human-made chemicals that interfere with hormones in the body, and are associated with a wide array of health issues, including obesity. (Mammoser, 5/24)

On obesity drugs and weight loss —

Reuters: Lilly Invests Further $5.3 Bln In New Indiana Site As Obesity Drug Demand Soars 
Eli Lilly said on Friday it has invested another $5.3 billion in its new Lebanon, Indiana manufacturing plant, more than doubling its previous investment, as it scrambles to meet soaring demand for its weight-loss and diabetes drugs. The new investment, which brings the total to $9 billion, will help boost production of the active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) for Lilly's powerful weight-loss drug Zepbound and diabetes treatment Mounjaro, the company said. (Wingrove, 5/24)

CNBC: Digital Health Companies Are Launching Programs Around GLP-1s
For Gray Beard, a kindergarten teacher in Charlotte, North Carolina, losing weight had become a grueling task. She’d tried five different programs in her life and never found lasting results. Her luck started to change last year, when she saw a promotion on Instagram for the Ro Body Program, a new offering from online health startup Ro. The ad said eligible patients could get prescribed GLP-1s, the buzzy class of obesity treatments that’s turned into a booming business in recent years. (Constantino and Capoot, 5/25)

NPR: The Ozempic-Like Obesity Drugs Create A Dilemma When People Have To Go Off Them
Over the past few decades, Jonathan Meyers endured several cycles of gaining, shedding, then regaining weight after attempting Keto, high protein, low fat, and calorie-restrictive diets. “I’ve had success, up and down, but I always regain the weight,” says Meyers, a digital strategist at an environmental nonprofit. But on Zepbound – the newest GLP-1 agonistdrug to launch – Meyers lost 35 pounds and loves feeling free from hunger. Without what he calls “food noise” – the gnawing compulsion to eat – he consumes less and moves more. (Noguchi, 5/27)

Axios: U.S. Faces Obesity Care Shortage As Demand For Weight-Loss Drugs Soars
The relatively small number of health care providers trained in obesity care can hardly keep up with Americans' demand for new weight-loss drugs. Tens of thousands of U.S. patients each week are starting on treatments like Novo Nordisk's Ozempic and Wegovy, but obesity medicine specialists worry there are still too few providers with enough specialized training to help patients who likely have to remain on the drugs long term. (Goldman, 5/28)

Healthline: Meals For GLP-1 Users: Nestlé Launches New Frozen Food Line
GLP-1 drugs, Ozempic and Wegovy have exploded in popularity with more and more people turning to these medications to help manage weight loss and diabetes. To target this new group of consumers, Nestlé has created a new frozen-food brand, Vital Pursuit that will launch in the fall of 2024.The food line will contain essential nutrients, with products such as sandwich melts, pizzas and frozen bowls with whole grains or pasta. (Vogel, 5/27)

Stat: At Las Vegas Conference, Methadone Clinics Blast Idea Of Doctors Prescribing Directly
Mark Parrino, the longtime leader of the U.S. methadone clinic industry, kicked off his organization’s conference here last week with a simple message: Allowing addiction doctors to prescribe the medication directly to their patients is “not a good idea.” (Facher, 5/28)

Stat: Duchenne Drug From Nippon Shinyaku Fails In Rare Confirmatory Trial 
Japanese drugmaker Nippon Shinyaku said on Monday that its Duchenne muscular dystrophy drug, Viltepso, part of a controversial class of treatments for the rare disease, had failed to reach its primary endpoint in a placebo-controlled confirmatory trial. (Mast, 5/27)

Stat: Gene Therapies For Deafness Raise The Question: Do Deaf People Want A 'Cure'?
When Yilai Shu was training to be an otolaryngologist in Shanghai, in the mid 2000s, he often met parents with congenitally deaf kids. “They always asked me, ‘Do you have any drugs to treat our kids?’ said Shu, who is hearing and a professor at Fudan University in China. “That’s what really inspired me to think about developing a drug.” (Broderick, 5/28)

CNBC: Neuralink Competitor Precision Neuroscience Testing Human Brain Implant
As the lights dimmed in an operating room at The Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City, Dr. Joshua Bederson prepared to make history. (Capoot, 5/25)

Reuters: Rite Aid Nears Deal On Post-Bankruptcy Financing 
Pharmacy chain Rite Aid is close to reaching a deal on a post-bankruptcy financing package, with a group of lenders preparing to provide interim financing while the company remains in Chapter 11, attorneys said Friday. Rite Aid received court approval in late March to begin voting on a bankruptcy plan that would eliminate $2 billion in debt and hand over the company's equity to a group of lenders including investment funds Brigade Capital and HG Vora. But Rite Aid has struggled to finalize some of the deal's details, delaying its planned exit from bankruptcy by over a month. (Knauth, 5/24)

In obituaries —

The New York Times: Dr. Paul D. Parkman, Who Helped Identify The Rubella Virus, Dies
Dr. Paul D. Parkman, whose research was instrumental in identifying the virus that causes rubella and developing a vaccine that has prevented an epidemic of the disease in the United States for more than 50 years, died on May 7 at his home in Auburn, New York, about 60 miles east of Rochester in the Finger Lakes region. He was 91. (Roberts, 5/28)

Health News Florida: A Lawsuit Claims A Palm Beach County Health Network Shared Patient Info With Meta
A recent lawsuit alleges Palm Beach Health Network shared "highly sensitive personal information" with Facebook’s parent company, Meta, according to the South Florida Sun Sentinel. The health network is accused of sharing code from its website with the company, allowing Facebook to target patients with personalized ads based on the sensitive information. (5/27)

KFF Health News: Florida Allows Doctors To Perform C-Sections Outside Of Hospitals
Florida has become the first state to allow doctors to perform cesarean sections outside of hospitals, siding with a private equity-owned physicians group that says the change will lower costs and give pregnant women the homier birthing atmosphere that many desire. But the hospital industry and the nation’s leading obstetricians’ association say that even though some Florida hospitals have closed their maternity wards in recent years, performing C-sections in doctor-run clinics will increase the risks for women and babies when complications arise. (Galewitz, 5/28)

Missouri Independent: Therapists, Social Workers Face Scrutiny From Missouri AG 
A state investigation of the Washington University Transgender Center in St. Louis expanded to include therapists and social workers across the state who work with minors seeking gender-affirming care. (Hanshaw, 5/25)

Stateline.org: As States Loosen Childhood Vaccine Requirements, Public Health Experts’ Worries Grow 
Louisiana Republican state Rep. Kathy Edmonston believes no one ought to be required to vaccinate their children. So, she wants schools to proactively tell parents that it’s their right under Louisiana law to seek an exemption. “It’s not the vaccine itself, it is the mandate,” Edmonston told Stateline. “The law is the law. And it already says you can opt out if you don’t want it. If you do want it, you can go anywhere and get it.” (Chatlani, 5/27)

North Carolina Health News: Docs, Community Health Workers Worry About Health Effects Of Immigration Bill 
Griselda Alonso remembers the home visit well. It was around 2008, a few years after she had started as a community health worker in Wake County. On typical visits, she focused on children’s health, telling families how to get vaccines, outlining healthy eating habits for them and sharing information about diabetes or asthma medications. During this visit to a family’s home in Fuquay Varina, something seemed off. (Nandagiri, 5/28)

Politico: ‘Just Brutal’: Why America’s Hottest City Is Seeing A Surge In Deaths
Summer burns in Phoenix. Scorching pavement blisters uncovered skin. Pus oozes from burned feet and bacteria-teeming wounds fester under sweat-soaked bandages for people living on the street. They might be the lucky ones. Relentless heat led to 645 deaths last year in Maricopa County, the most ever documented in Arizona’s biggest metropolitan area. The soaring number of heat mortalities — a 1,000 percent increase over 10 years — comes as temperatures reach new highs amid exploding eviction rates in the Phoenix area, leading to a collision of homelessness and record-setting heat waves. (Wittenberg, 5/28)

The Texas Tribune: Uvalde Families Sue Gun Manufacturer, Instagram, Activision
Several Uvalde families are suing Daniel Defense, the gun company whose AR-15 style rifle an 18-year-old gunman used to kill 19 children and two teachers and injure several others at Robb Elementary two years ago, lawyers said. The family members of victims Friday also filed a separate lawsuit against California-based companies Meta — the parent company of Instagram and Facebook — and Activision, whose best-selling video game Call of Duty features Daniel Defense guns. (Salhotra and Garcia, 5/24)

In other mental health news —

The Washington Post: Americans See Disparities In Mental And Physical Care, Survey Finds 
When asked, 75 percent of survey respondents said they felt mental health conditions are identified and treated worse than physical health issues, according to a new survey from West Health and Gallup. The poll surveyed a random sample of 2,266 U.S. adults 18 and older. In addition to perceptions about treatment, the survey also gauged mental health conditions among participants. Of the respondents: 51 percent reported experiencing depression, anxiety or another mental health condition in the previous 12 months. (Docter-Loeb, 5/27)

Stateline: Amid Mental Health Crisis, New Compact Allows Social Workers To Practice Across State Lines
Stefani Goerlich, a certified sex therapist and social worker with a private practice in Detroit, sees several dozen clients a month, most of them from underserved and minority backgrounds. She speaks to them about sensitive matters such as gender-affirming care, and building trust takes time. Those hard-won relationships often are upended when clients move away from Michigan, because most states bar social workers from providing telehealth services across state lines. Finding another therapist who is a good fit isn’t easy, especially since many areas of the country have a shortage of mental health providers. (Chatlani, 5/28)

The CT Mirror: For Some CT Kids, The Mental Health Care System Is Struggling
The Simsbury mother felt like she had exhausted all the options. They’d tried repeated psychiatric hospitalizations to help her adopted daughter. They’d tried a wide variety of therapy methods. They’d lost track of the number of emergency room visits. And still, she feared her daughter, who had reported suicidal ideations, would end up dead. (Monk and Edison, 5/26)

KFF Health News: New Help For Dealing With Aggression In People With Dementia 
Caring for older adults with dementia is stressful, especially when they become physically or verbally aggressive, wander away from home, develop paranoia or hallucinations, engage in inappropriate or repetitive behaviors, or refuse to let caregivers help them. Upward of 95% of patients experience these neuropsychiatric symptoms of dementia, which tend to fluctuate over time and vary in intensity. They’re the primary reasons people with dementia end up in assisted living facilities or nursing homes. At some point, families and friends trying to help at home simply can’t manage. (Graham, 5/28)

Bloomberg: Fake Science Generated By Paper Mills Will Get Worse With AI 
Faking it until you make it may be a common practice in some careers. But it’s clearly unethical for scientists and medical researchers. All the same thousands of fake papers are churned out by so-called paper mills and published every year, many of them in peer-reviewed journals. (F.D. Flam, 5/25)

Stat: Achieving Telehealth Equity For People With Hearing Loss 
Gen Z has made captioning cool. Captions are now widely available in social media, entertainment channels, and web conferencing platforms, including YouTube, Hulu, and Zoom. Yet, there is one extremely important place where captions are not regularly available: telehealth visits. This disproportionately affects people with hearing loss. (Zina Jawadi, Alex Chern, and Stephen McInturff, 5/28)

Stat: The World Needs The New Pandemic Treaty 
At the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, 25 heads of government issued an extraordinary call for a new international treaty for preventing, preparing for, and responding to pandemics. For two years, World Health Organization member states have been negotiating an international agreement scheduled for adoption at the World Health Assembly this month. Yet, late Friday in Geneva, negotiations ground to a halt. While most of the draft treaty text was “greened,” meaning accepted by the parties, member states failed to reach consensus on critical issues. (Alexandra Phelan and Lawrence O. Gostin, 5/27)

Miami Herald: Trump’s Musing On Birth Control Restrictions Is A Red Flag In Post-Roe Reality
There is a widespread misconception that emergency birth control stops a pregnancy and that IUDs prevent the implantation of a fertilized egg into the uterus (they don’t), according to KFF, an independent healthcare policy nonprofit. That misinformation, coupled with the language of some abortion bans in states like Tennessee, may already be used to limit access to contraceptives, KFF says. (Isadora Rangel, 5/25)

San Francisco Chronicle: Lawmakers Say A New Biosecurity Bill Will Protect Us From China. They’re Wrong
The U.S. drug supply is inexorably linked to China. Most biotech and pharma companies use Chinese contract drug manufacturing organizations to obtain raw materials, components and active pharmaceutical ingredients. A recent survey by the Biotechnology Innovation Organization found that of 124 biopharma companies surveyed, 79% had China-based or owned manufacturing partners. (Chirag Asaravala, 5/23)