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BOISE, Idaho (AP) — Four women suing over Idaho's strict abortion bans told a judge Tuesday how excitement over their pregnancies turned to grief and fear after they learned their fetuses were not likely to survive to birth — and how they had to leave the state to get abortions amid fears that pregnancy complications would put their own health in danger. "We felt like we were being made refugees, medical refugees," said Jennifer Adkins, one of the plaintiffs in the case. The women, represented by the Center for Reproductive Rights, aren't ask...
The majority of strokes could be prevented, according to new guidelines aimed at helping people and their doctors do just that. Stroke was the fourth leading cause of death in the U.S. in 2023, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and more than half a million Americans have a stroke every year. But up to 80% of strokes may be preventable with better nutrition, exercise and identification of risk factors. The first new guidelines on stroke prevention in 10 years from the American Stroke Association, a division of the...
WASHINGTON (AP) — Anti-abortion advocates say there is still work to be done to further restrict access to abortion when Republican Donald Trump returns to the White House next year. They point to the federal guidance that the administration of Democratic President Joe Biden released around emergency abortions, requiring that hospitals provide them for women whose health or life is at risk, and its easing of prescribing restrictions for abortion pills that have allowed women to order the medication online with the click of a button. "Now the w...
KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — After working at a crowded and dangerous internment camp in Iraq, Air Force Staff Sgt. Heather O'Brien brought home with her anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder. A bouncy labradoodle and a Kansas City-area program helped her get back on her feet. Dogs 4 Valor, operated through the Olathe, Kansas-based organization called The Battle Within, helps retired veterans and first responders work with their service dogs to help manage depression, anxiety and other challenges. "A lot of times the veteran with severe P...
GOMA, Congo (AP) — Some health officials say mpox cases in Congo appear to be "stabilizing" — a possible sign that the main epidemic for which the World Health Organization made a global emergency declaration in August might be on the decline. In recent weeks, Congo has reported about 200 to 300 lab-confirmed mpox cases every week, according to WHO. That's down from nearly 400 cases a week in July. The decline is also apparent in Kamituga, the mining city in the eastern part of Congo where the new, more infectious variant of mpox first eme...
LONDON (AP) — More than 8 million people were diagnosed with tuberculosis last year, the World Health Organization said Tuesday, the highest number recorded since the U.N. health agency began keeping track. About 1.25 million people died of TB last year, the new report said, adding that TB likely returned to being the world's top infectious disease killer after being replaced by COVID-19 during the pandemic. The deaths are almost double the number of people killed by HIV in 2023. WHO said TB continues to mostly affect people in Southeast A...
A California-based produce company was the source of fresh onions linked to a deadly E. coli food poisoning outbreak at McDonald's, officials with the restaurant chain said Thursday. Meanwhile, other fast-food restaurants — including Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, KFC and Burger King — pulled onions from some menus. McDonald's officials said that Taylor Farms, of Salinas, California, sent onions to one distribution facility, which led the fast-food chain to remove Quarter Pounder hamburgers from restaurants in several states. McDonald's didn't say whi...
A deadly outbreak of E. coli poisoning tied to McDonald's Quarter Pounders has expanded, with at least 75 people sick in 13 states, federal health officials said Friday. A total of 22 people have now been hospitalized, and two have developed a dangerous kidney disease complication, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said. One person has died in Colorado. No definitive source of the outbreak has been identified, officials with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said. Early information analyzed by the FDA showed that uncooked...
Women living in states with abortion bans obtained the procedure in the second half of 2023 at about the same rate as before the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, according to a report released Tuesday. Women did so by traveling out of state or by having prescription abortion pills mailed to them, according to the #WeCount report from the Society of Family Planning, which advocates for abortion access. They increasingly used telehealth, the report found, as medical providers in states with laws intended to protection them from prosecut...
MISSION, Kan. (AP) — Outdoor conditioning while a heat advisory was in effect during the humid summer left 15-year-old football player Ovet Gomez Regalado pale and asking for water. After a 15-minute exercise, he collapsed as he walked to a building at his suburban Kansas City high school and died two days later of heatstroke, the medical examiner's office wrote this month in a report that followed a weekslong investigation. That makes Regalado the latest in a series of teen football players to succumb to heat-related illnesses during s...
WASHINGTON (AP) — Millions of people with private health insurance would be able to pick up over-the-counter methods like condoms, the "morning after" pill and birth control pills for free under a new rule the White House proposed on Monday. Right now, health insurers must cover the cost of prescribed contraception, including prescription birth control or even condoms that doctors have issued a prescription for. But the new rule would expand that coverage, allowing millions to buy condoms, birth control pills, or "morning after" pills from l...
Reproductive rights measures are on the ballots in 10 states after heated debates over how to describe their impact on abortion — and that's just in English. In 388 places across the U.S. where English isn't the primary language among communities of voters, the federal Voting Rights Act requires that all elections information be made available in each community's native language. Such translations are meant to help non-native English speakers understand what they're voting for. But vague or technical terms can be challenging, even more so w...
A nationwide recall of meat and poultry products potentially contaminated with listeria has expanded to nearly 12 million pounds and now includes ready-to-eat meals sent to U.S. schools, restaurants and major retailers, federal officials said. The updated recall includes prepared salads, burritos and other foods sold at stores including Costco, Trader Joe's, Target, Walmart and Kroger. The meat used in those products was processed at a Durant, Oklahoma, manufacturing plant operated by BrucePac. The Woodburn, Oregon-based company sells...
When a woman has a mammogram, the most important finding is whether there's any sign of breast cancer. The second most important finding is whether her breasts are dense. Since early September, a new U.S. rule requires mammography centers to inform women about their breast density — information that isn't entirely new for some women because many states already had similar requirements. Here's what to know about why breast density is important. Are dense breasts bad? No, dense breasts are not bad. In fact, they're quite normal. About 40% of wome...
Melinda French Gates will grant $250 million to support women's health around the world through an open call for nonprofits to apply for funding. The pledge announced Wednesday signals a new chapter in her individual philanthropic giving since departing from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation earlier this year and is part of a two-year, $1 billion commitment that French Gates made in May to support women and families around the world. Haven Ley, chief strategy officer at French Gates' organization Pivotal Ventures, said the grant competition...
GOMA, Congo (AP) — Congolese authorities Saturday began vaccinations against mpox, nearly two months after the disease outbreak that spread from Congo to several African countries and beyond was declared a global emergency by the World Health Organization. The 265,000 doses donated to Congo by the European Union and the U.S. were rolled out in the eastern city of Goma in North Kivu province, where hospitals and health workers have been overstretched, struggling to contain the new and possibly more infectious strain of mpox. Congo, with about 30...
NEW YORK (AP) — Humanity is hitting the upper limit of life expectancy, according to a new study. Advances in medical technology and genetic research — not to mention larger numbers of people making it to age 100 — are not translating into marked jumps in lifespan overall, according to researchers who found shrinking longevity increases in countries with the longest-living populations. "We have to recognize there's a limit" and perhaps reassess assumptions about when people should retire and how much money they'll need to live out their lives...
OXFORD, Miss. (AP) — It's hard to miss the overflowing bowl of condoms at the entrance of the gym. Some University of Mississippi students walking past after their workout snicker and point, and the few who step forward to consider grabbing a condom rethink it when their friends catch up, laughter trailing behind them. Almost no one actually reaches in to take one. Though officials say they refill the bowl multiple times a day, and condoms are available at multiple places on campus, Ole Miss students say the disinterest is indicative of c...
ATLANTA (AP) — A Georgia judge on Monday struck down the state's abortion law, which took effect in 2022 and effectively prohibited abortions beyond about six weeks of pregnancy. Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney wrote in his order that "liberty in Georgia includes in its meaning, in its protections, and in its bundle of rights the power of a woman to control her own body, to decide what happens to it and in it, and to reject state interference with her healthcare choices." When the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade i...
It became more common for authorities to charge women with crimes related to their pregnancies after the fall of Roe v. Wade in 2022, a new study found — even if they're almost never accused of violating abortion bans. In the year after the U.S. Supreme Court ended the nationwide right to abortion in its Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization ruling, at least 210 women across the country were charged with crimes related to their pregnancies, according to the report released by Pregnancy Justice, an advocacy organization. That's the h...
NEW YORK (AP) — A federal judge has ordered the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to further regulate fluoride in drinking water because high levels could pose a risk to the intellectual development of children. U.S. District Judge Edward Chen cautioned that it's not certain that the amount of fluoride typically added to water is causing lower IQ in kids, but he concluded that mounting research points to an unreasonable risk that it could be. He ordered the EPA to take steps to lower that risk, but didn't say what those measures should b...
WASHINGTON (AP) — Fall means it's time for just about everybody to get up to date on their flu and COVID-19 vaccines – and a lot of older adults also need protection against another risky winter virus, RSV. Yes, you can get your flu and COVID-19 shots at the same time. Don't call them boosters — they're not just another dose of last year's protection. The coronavirus and influenza are escape artists that constantly mutate to evade your body's immune defenses, so both vaccines are reformulated annually to target newer strains. "Right now is th...
LONDON (AP) — Scientists searching for the origins of COVID-19 have zeroed in on a short list of animals that possibly helped spread it to people, an effort they hope could allow them to trace the outbreak back to its source. Researchers analyzed genetic material gathered from the Chinese market where the first outbreak was detected and found that the most likely animals were racoon dogs, civet cats and bamboo rats. The scientists suspect infected animals were first brought to the Wuhan market in late November 2019, which then triggered the pan...
The small plastic box that beeped and flashed numbers was a lifeline to Laurie Dove in 1993. Pregnant with her first baby in a house beyond any town in rural Kansas, Dove used the little black device to keep in touch with her husband as he delivered medical supplies. He carried one, too. They had a code. "If I really needed something I would text '9-1-1.' That meant anything from, 'I'm going to labor right now' to 'I really need to get ahold of you,'" she recalls. "It was our version of texting. I was as nervous as a long-tailed cat in a room f...
TOKYO (AP) — If you're trying to lose weight and want a new way to do it, stair-climbing as a regular exercise — or just adding a few flights a day — might be for you. It's accessible, and research shows it's more effective than walking on level ground. "Overall, it is a fact that stair-climbing gets you fit faster and consumes more calories," said Lauri van Houten, vice president of the International Skyrunning Federation, which oversees a wide range of disciplines that involve vertical climbing. This includes disciplines like mountain runni...
