Anti-abortion activists brace for challenges ahead as they gather for annual March for Life

A year ago, anti-abortion activists from across the U.S. gathered for their annual March for Life with reason to celebrate: It was their first march since the Supreme Court, seven months earlier, had overturned the nationwide right to abortion. At this year’s march, on Friday, the mood will be very different — reflecting formidable challenges … Read more

Wastewater tests can find mpox, study finds. Expect more bugs to be tracked that way

NEW YORK — Wastewater testing does a good job at detecting mpox infections, U.S. health officials said in a report Thursday that bolsters a push to use sewage to track more diseases. U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention researchers found that over the course of a week, there was a 32% likelihood the tests … Read more

NY midwife who gave kids homeopathic pellets instead of vaccines fined $300K for falsifying records

NEW YORK — A New York midwife who gave nearly 1,500 children homeopathic pellets instead of required vaccinations has been fined $300,000, the state’s health department announced this week. Jeanette Breen, who operates Baldwin Midwifery on Long Island, administered the pellets as an alternative to vaccinations and then falsified their immunization records, the agency said … Read more

Mississippi has the highest rate of preventable deaths in the US, health official says

JACKSON, Miss. — Mississippi has improved some of its poor health outcomes, but its people are more likely to die unnecessarily than residents of any other state, the state’s top health official said Thursday. State Health Officer Dr. Daniel Edney urged legislators who just began this year’s session to work with health officials to improve … Read more

Israeli company gets green light to make world’s first cultivated beef steaks

An Israeli company has received a preliminary green light from health officials to sell the world’s first steaks made from cultivated beef cells, not the entire animal, officials said. The move follows approval of lab-grown chicken in the U.S. last year. Aleph Farms, of Rehovot, Israel, was granted the initial go-ahead by the Israeli Health … Read more

Defense Department to again target ‘forever chemicals’ contamination near Michigan military base

The U.S. Department of Defense plans to install two more groundwater treatment systems at a former Michigan military base to control contamination from so-called forever chemicals, U.S. Rep. Elissa Slotkin’s office announced Friday. Environmentalists say the systems will help prevent PFAS from spreading into the Clarks Marsh area and the Au Sable River near the … Read more

How to stay warm in layered clothing and avoid frostbite this winter

MINNEAPOLIS — As a bout of bitter and deadly cold sweeps the U.S., millions of Americans are being told to dress in layers if they must go outside. In places that rarely experience bone-chilling temperatures, that advice can be confounding. What does it mean to layer up? Is it different from just putting on a … Read more

Online rumors partially to blame for drop in water pressure in Mississippi capital, manager says

JACKSON, Miss. — Law enforcement agencies are investigating whether social media rumors about a potential water outage prompted people to quickly fill bathtubs with tap water in Mississippi’s capital during a cold snap and cause a drop in pressure that temporarily made faucets run dry for thousands of customers of the city’s long-troubled system. Taps … Read more

US government rejects complaint that woman was improperly denied an emergency abortion in Oklahoma

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services says an Oklahoma hospital did not violate federal law when doctors told a woman with a nonviable pregnancy to wait in the parking lot until her condition worsened enough to qualify for an abortion under the state’s strict ban. Jaci Statton, 26, was among several women last … Read more