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Republican lawmakers shy away from changing Montana’s constitutional right to abortion

Republican lawmakers in Montana wield a supermajority that gives them the power to ask voters to approve a constitutional amendment that would break the link between abortion rights and the right to privacy in the state's constitution.

16 Feb 2023

The Pill Club reaches $18.3 million Medicaid fraud settlement with California

The Pill Club, an online women's pharmacy, has reached an $18.3 million settlement with California authorities over claims it defrauded the state's Medicaid program by prescribing birth control pills without adequate consultation and shipping tens of thousands of female condoms to customers who didn't want them.

7 Feb 2023

New candidate molecule could become an effective non-hormonal male contraceptive

Despite birth control existing for decades, almost none of the options specifically target sperm cells. Researchers are now developing approaches that target testosterone or otherwise interrupt the sperm's ability to fertilize an egg, yet these may not work for everyone.

30 Jan 2023

Part II: The state of the abortion debate 50 years after ‘Roe’

The abortion debate has changed dramatically in the seven months since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and its nationwide right to abortion.

27 Jan 2023

Montana pharmacists may get more power to prescribe

Mark Buck, a physician and pharmacist in Helena, Montana, said he's been seeing more patients turn to urgent care clinics when they run out of medication.

27 Jan 2023

Abortion debate ramps up in states as Congress deadlocks

Anti-abortion advocates are pressing for expanded abortion bans and tighter restrictions since the Supreme Court overturned the national right to abortion.

23 Jan 2023

Ask voters directly, and abortion rights wins most ballot fights

This is shaping up as a critical year in the country's battle over abortion rights, as both sides struggle to define a new status quo after the Supreme Court struck down the nearly half-century-old constitutional right last year.

13 Jan 2023

New drug candidates for male birth control may be on the horizon

For decades, researchers have been working on "male birth control" -; and studies show there is a demand.

30 Nov 2022

Study examines cannabidiol's effect on simulated driving

Researchers use simulated driving performance to investigate whether drowsiness induced by the medical use of cannabidiol had an impact on safe driving.

29 Nov 2022

Patient mistrust and poor access hamper federal efforts to overhaul family planning

Two years ago, after an emergency cesarean section at a Mississippi hospital, Sherika Trader was denied a tubal ligation. Trader, now 33, was told that to have her tubes tied, she had to have a second child or a husband's permission, even though she wasn't married.

21 Nov 2022

Potential effects of nonoral versus oral gender-affirming estrogen therapy

A comprehensive review of research into the delivery method of estrogen treatment (e.g., oral, intramuscular injection, transdermal patch, etc.) and cardiovascular risk in transgender women and gender-diverse people found that treatment route may affect heart health, but there is not enough available data for metanalysis. The study is published ahead of print in the American Journal of Physiology-Heart and Circulatory Physiology. It was chosen as an APSselect article for November.

17 Nov 2022

Research in young rats shows how hormonal contraceptives may affect the brain

Reproductive health experts consider hormonal contraceptives good choices for adolescents because they're safe and highly effective at preventing pregnancy, but one aspect of their effect on the teenage body remains a mystery – whether and how they modify the developing brain.

16 Nov 2022

More babies, lower risk of endometrial cancer

While many highly industrialized and developed countries report falling or negative population growth rates due to a rapid decrease in the number of babies born each year, a new report adds more strength to the evidence that bearing a baby has a protective effect on the endometrium, the lining of the womb, reducing the risk of endometrial cancer.

8 Nov 2022

Post-‘Roe,’ contraceptive failures carry bigger stakes

Birth control options have improved over the decades. Oral contraceptives are now safer, with fewer side effects. Intrauterine devices can prevent pregnancy 99.6% of the time. But no prescription drug or medical device works flawlessly, and people's use of contraception is inexact.

7 Nov 2022

What are the implications of microbial ecosystems for female reproductive health?

Researchers reviewed the current understanding of the composition and temporal dynamics of microbial niches in the female reproductive tract.

31 Oct 2022

Texas, battling teen pregnancy, recasts sex education standards

J.R. Chester got pregnant the summer before her senior year of high school. A bright student with good grades, she gave birth, graduated, and was pregnant again when she arrived at college that fall.

20 Sep 2022

Combined oral contraceptives associated with elevated risk of venous thromboembolism in obese women

Obese women who use oral contraceptives containing estrogen and progestin have a 24-fold increased risk of venous thromboembolism (VTE) compared with non-obese women not using the drugs, according to a review paper published today in ESC Heart Failure, a journal of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC).

14 Sep 2022

Many preventive medical services cost patients nothing. Will a Texas court decision change that?

A federal judge's ruling in Texas has thrown into question whether millions of insured Americans will continue to receive some preventive medical services, such as cancer screenings and drugs that protect people from HIV infection, without making a copayment.

9 Sep 2022

In the rush to curtail abortion, states adopt a jumbled stew of definitions for human life

As life-preserving medical technology advanced in the second half of the 20th century, doctors and families were faced with a thorny decision, one with weighty legal and moral implications: How should we define when life ends? Cardiopulmonary bypass machines could keep the blood pumping and ventilators could maintain breathing long after a patient's natural ability to perform those vital functions had ceased.

6 Sep 2022

On the Wisconsin-Illinois border: Clinics in neighboring states team up on abortion care

Around two days a week, Natalee Hartwig leaves her home in Madison, Wisconsin, before her son wakes up to travel across the border into Illinois.

16 Aug 2022