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Abortion is often cast as a clear, crisp issue in Washington and in state governments, with Republicans and Democrats clustered in opposite corners. Joe Biden moved nearer to the rest of his party’s presidential contenders on Thursday when he dropped his support of a measure restricting use of federal funds for abortions. But while the Democratic field now looks more uniform, the public’s views are often muddled and complex. They bear little resemblance to those of politicians, or even to those of the activists and ideologically consistent voters who post political content to social media. (Cohn, 6/8)

Three-quarters of Americans say they want to keep in place the landmark Supreme Court ruling, Roe v. Wade, that made abortion legal in the United States, but a strong majority would like to see restrictions on abortion rights, according to a new NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist Poll. What the survey found is a great deal of complexity — and sometimes contradiction among Americans — that goes well beyond the talking points of the loudest voices in the debate. In fact, there's a high level of dissatisfaction with abortion policy overall. Almost two-thirds of people said they were either somewhat or very dissatisfied, including 66% of those who self-identify as "pro-life" and 62% of those who self-identify as "pro-choice." (Montanaro, 6/7)

The poll found that 57 percent of Americans surveyed said they support abortion rights, while 35 percent said they were against the procedure. A similar poll in January found that 55 percent of Americans considered themselves “pro-choice,” while 38 percent identified as “pro-life.” (Bowden, 6/7)

According to the poll, 26 percent of Americans want to keep Roe v. Wade in place, but add more restrictions. The survey found that a strong majority, 61 percent, said they favored a combination of limitations on abortion. (Frazin, 6/7)

Majorities of likely Iowa Democratic caucus participants say any candidate who hopes to win their support must favor a woman's right to abortion, recognize climate change as humanity's greatest threat, and support restoration of a ban on assault-style weapons, according to a new CNN/Des Moines Register/Mediacom poll. Other issues, including recent campaign touchstones such as support for Medicare for All, free tuition for public four-year colleges and restoration of felon voting rights are must-haves for less than half of caucusgoers, regardless of whether they plan to participate virtually or in person. (Agiesta and Sparks, 6/10)

In January 1966, The Washington Post ran a four-part series on how women in the Washington area obtained abortions. At the time, abortion was illegal with few exceptions in the District of Columbia, Maryland and Virginia. Now, nearly a half-century after Roe v. Wade, new abortion restrictions are being imposed in Alabama, Georgia, Missouri, Ohio, Utah and other states. Below is an abridged version of The Post’s four-part series, edited to highlight personal experiences. The original headlines of the series are now subheads for each section. (Stevens, 6/9)

Former vice president Joe Biden’s sudden reversal on allowing taxpayer funding for abortions prompted an uproar in the presidential race. But on Capitol Hill, Democrats show little sign they are planning to upend a long but uneasy truce on the issue. Even after winning back control of the House in last year’s midterm elections, House Democrats are poised to vote next week on a wide-ranging spending bill that includes the very language Biden disavowed late Thursday — the Hyde Amendment, a provision that has sharply limited federal funding for abortions since 1976. (DeBonis, 6/7)

The Hyde Amendment has become a top discussion point in 2020 politics — and something of a purity test for Democrats — after Joe Biden, the leader of his party's presidential pack, announced that he's now an opponent of the 1976 policy. But the amendment that restricts government funding for most abortions has been preserved by Democrats for decades — including with votes from some of the presidential hopefuls now decrying it. Biden's reversal Thursday crashed that party. His timing raised questions about how in touch he is with the new generation of Democrats that propelled a record number of women into the ranks of White House hopefuls and Congress. (Kellman, 6/7)

Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders on Sunday defended his past votes for legislation containing a provision prohibiting federal funding for most abortions, while reiterating his support for abortion rights. Sanders was asked on CNN’s “State of the Union” about his support for bills containing the Hyde Amendment, which bans using Medicaid funds for abortions unless the woman’s life is in danger or the pregnancy arises from rape or incest. (Massara, 6/9)

The debate surrounding abortion access is about to spill over from the campaign trail to Capitol Hill as lawmakers begin debating must-pass appropriations bills.  Starting Wednesday, the House will take up a nearly $1 trillion spending package (HR 2740) written by Democrats that would roll back Trump administration anti-abortion rights policies, including restrictions barring health clinics from recommending abortion services and preventing U.S. foreign assistance to aid groups that perform or promote abortions. (Shutt, 6/10)

Several of Joe Biden’s Democratic presidential rivals seized the opportunity Friday to highlight his reversal on federal funding for abortions, seeking to elevate their profile in the crowded field and weaken the candidate leading in the polls. In a morning tweet, Rep. Seth Moulton (D-Mass.) took aim at the former vice president hours after Biden announced that he now opposes the so-called Hyde Amendment, which prohibits the use of federal funds for abortion. The tweet also highlighted another potential weakness for Biden. (Wagner and Itkowitz, 6/7)

When Joseph R. Biden Jr. took the stage at a fund-raiser that drew many African-American Democrats Thursday night, he was under siege over his support for a measure that prohibits federal funding for most abortions. Black women, including on his own campaign staff, were urging him to reverse his position, pointing to restrictive abortion laws passed in Georgia and in other Southern states. He was facing a chorus of blistering-if-implicit criticism from his Democratic rivals, and abortion rights groups like Planned Parenthood were intensely lobbying his staff. And he feared that his coming health care proposal could be overshadowed by questions of why he supported limiting abortion access for poor women and women of color who rely on Medicaid. (Glueck, Martin and Burns, 6/7)

Actress Alyssa Milano, an outspoken women's rights advocate and friend of Joe Biden, reportedly urged the former vice president to reverse his stance on the Hyde Amendment after he reaffirmed his decades-long support for the ban on federal funding for abortions. (Frazin, 6/7)

A senior adviser to former Vice President Joe Biden defended the 2020 White House hopeful after he reversed his previous support for the Hyde Amendment, which prohibits using federal funds for abortions. His reversal came just a day after Biden's campaign had reaffirmed his decades-long support for the amendment, which was strongly criticized by other 2020 Democratic candidates as well as groups that support abortion rights. (Frazin, 6/7)

As a wave of highly restrictive state laws have made abortion a key issue in the 2020 campaign, the Hyde Amendment has drawn new scrutiny. Numerous presidential candidates had already come out against the provision before Wednesday, when former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. became the only one to say he supported it, prompting intense criticism. By Thursday, almost all of the other 22 candidates in the Democratic race were on the record calling for its repeal. Less than 48 hours after his initial statement, Mr. Biden changed his mind. (Astor, 6/7)

In 1976, a Republican congressman from the well-heeled western suburbs of Chicago rose on the House floor to make the case for an amendment he had recently introduced, using language that evoked the Nazi plan to exterminate Europe’s Jews. “The only virtue to abortion is that it is a final solution,” the lawmaker said. “Believe me, it is a final solution, especially to the unborn child.” The speaker was Henry J. Hyde, the namesake of the Hyde Amendment, which prohibits the use of federal funding for most abortions, making the procedure largely inaccessible for women who rely on Medicaid. (Stanley-Becker, 6/7)

Under any circumstances, a pelvic exam is uncomfortable. The invasive practice requires a doctor to insert a speculum into a patient’s vagina to examine her cervix and to insert fingers into that patient’s vagina while pressing her abdomen to feel her reproductive organs. Even when it’s medically necessary, it is unpleasant. But when it’s not — when it’s instead performed only because of a state mandate — doctors say the examination can be traumatizing. In Missouri, this issue — the subject of back-to-back episodes of Rachel Maddow’s MSNBC show — is at the center of the fight over the fate of the state’s last abortion clinic. (Thebault, 6/8)

Health officials on Friday said they're still seeking answers from Missouri's only abortion clinic about why some patients were unaware that they remained pregnant after what the agency described as "failed surgical abortions." The state Department of Health and Senior Services said a March health inspection of the St. Louis Planned Parenthood clinic "identified serious concerns, one of those involving the handling of fetal tissue extracted from abortions." (Ballentine and Hanna, 6/7)

The couple donned sunglasses and baseball caps before entering a southern Illinois clinic on a recent weekday, attempting to shield their identities from protesters outside. Fearing for their safety, they also rented a car so their own license plate could not be traced. The young woman’s 21-week pregnancy was clearly visible to the small cluster of anti-abortion activists. One of the strangers said she must be able to feel her baby moving and suggested adoption. Another mentioned that Father’s Day was approaching. (Lourgos, 6/10)

Attorneys general for 11 states and the District of Columbia signed a joint statement saying they will not criminalize abortions and that recent abortion bans "appear to be unconstitutional." The Fair and Just prosecution statement was signed by the attorneys general of California, Vermont, Minnesota, Nevada, Maryland, Massachusetts, Delaware, Michigan, D.C., Illinois, Oregon and Pennsylvania. It was also signed by elected prosecutors in several states, including some whose governments have recently passed abortion bans. (Frazin, 6/7)

Tennessee. West Virginia. Alabama.Abortion opponents want Kansas to join a small club of states that have changed their constitutions to limit abortion rights in the past decade. These states demonstrate the challenges of amending state constitutions – but also the potential rewards for anti-abortion activists if they’re successful. Those states have gone on to further restrict access to abortion, with Alabama instituting a near-total ban and Tennessee banning telemedicine abortions and requiring a 48-hour waiting period. (Shorman, 6/8)

When a young woman came to the Family Services of North Alabama office last year for help with trauma, saying she had been raped by her step-uncle when she was 15, rape crisis advocate Portia Shepherd heard something that “killed me, shocked me. ”The step-uncle, who was getting out of jail after a drug conviction, wanted to be a part of their child’s life. And in Alabama, the alleged rapist could get custody. “It’s the craziest thing I ever heard in my life,” Shepherd said. “On the state level, people were shocked. How could Alabama even be missing this law?” (Wax-Thibodeaux, 6/9)

From Yale, Mich., a conservative meat-processing town with less than 2,000 people in the state’s eastern “thumb,” the nearest abortion providers are roughly an hour drive away. For Shelley O’Brien, the manager of the Yale Hotel, that was close enough to be of help. “Dear sisters that live in Alabama, Ohio, Georgia, Arkansas, Missouri, or any of the other states that follow with similar laws restricting access,” the 55-year-old mother of three wrote on the hotel’s Facebook page in May. “We cannot do anything about the way you are being treated in your home state. But, if you can make it to Michigan, we will support you with several nights lodging, and transportation to and from your appointment.” (Noori Farzan, 6/10)

To save babies from brain-damaging birth defects, University of Pittsburgh scientist Carolyn Coyne studies placentas from fetuses that otherwise would be discarded — and she's worried this kind of research is headed for the chopping block. The Trump administration is cracking down on fetal tissue research , with new hurdles for government-funded scientists around the country who call the special cells vital for fighting a range of health threats. (Neergaard, Ritter and Alonso-Zaldivar, 6/8)

The agenda for the Oval Office meeting was heavy with political and scientific significance: whether to curtail the government’s decades-long support for medical research that relies on fetal tissue from elective abortions. The president’s top health and science aides had been arguing that ending the funding could disrupt valuable research, trigger lawsuits and place the values of abortion opponents above those of scientists. Over the opposition of Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar, who was in the room, the president chose the course advocated by his political advisers and Vice President Pence: to end the work of government researchers and impose restrictions on funding for universities and other outside labs. (Goldstein and Dawsey, 6/7)

Kaiser Health News: FAQ: How Does New Trump Fetal Tissue Policy Impact Medical Research?

The announcement this week that the federal government is changing its policy on the use of human fetal tissue in medical research is designed to please anti-abortion groups that have strongly supported President Donald Trump. But it could jeopardize promising medical research and set back attempts to make inroads in devastating diseases such as HIV, Parkinson’s and diabetes, U.S. scientists said. Under the new policy, employees at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) will no longer conduct research with human fetal tissue obtained from elective abortions, after using up any material they have on hand. Officials also immediately stopped funding a multiyear contract at the University of California-San Francisco using human fetal tissue in mice to research HIV therapies. (Andrews, 6/7)

Kaiser Health News: KHN’s ‘What The Health?’: Fetal Tissue Research Is Latest Flashpoint In Abortion Debate

The Trump administration this week announced efforts to restrict research using fetal tissue from elective abortions. The new policy bars such research by government scientists and creates hurdles for outside scientists that get funding from the National Institutes of Health. The move displaces a policy passed with bipartisan support in Congress more than 25 years ago. (6/6)

Public health now has the tools to eradicate HIV — medicines to protect people from getting the virus, to prevent those who have it from infecting others, and to prolong lives by decades. But it takes a lot more than a pill to reach the “hard to reach” populations, people who 40 years into the epidemic are still most at risk of contracting and spreading HIV/AIDS. These are the stigmatized, the marginalized, the poor, the homeless, the afraid, the addicted and the mentally ill, in rural communities and urban cores. Unlike the 1980s, the faces of the AIDS crisis in 2019 are not found so much in San Francisco’s Castro district or New York’s Greenwich Village. They are disproportionately black men, and increasingly black women. Some are gay or bisexual and closeted in hostile communities. Many are at risk because of drug addiction and mental illness, in small rural southern towns or in troubled inner cities like Baltimore. (Karlin-Smith, 6/8)

U.S. regulators moved to discipline vaping companies for inappropriately promoting their flavored nicotine 51��Ƶs through so-called influencers on Facebook, Twitter and other social media sites. The Food and Drug Administration sent warning letters Friday to four companies that used paid social media influencers to pitch nicotine solutions to their online followers, including flavors like Watermelon Patch and Strawberry Kiwi. (Perrone, 6/7)

Social media marketing has come under increased scrutiny as part of attempts by health regulators to control the marketing of tobacco products, particularly the newest generation of products including the wildly popular Juul e-cigarettes. Posts on social media on behalf of Solace Technologies LLC, Hype City Vapors LLC, Humble Juice Co LLC and Artist Liquids Laboratories LLC had content touting the flavored e-liquid products by not including the required nicotine warning statement, the agency said. (6/7)

Facebook officially prohibits advertising or selling tobacco products, but there are loopholes. The FTC has also been reminding influencers that they need to clearly disclose their relationships to brands when promoting or endorsing products through social media.  The warning letters come as the FDA is trying to crack down on tobacco companies, and e-cigarette makers in particular, amid a massive spike in teen vaping. (Weixel, 6/7)

A decade after Congress gave the Food and Drug Administration the authority to regulate tobacco products, there is a growing sense that the law might need to be revisited to address a product that lawmakers barely knew about in June 2009: electronic cigarettes. The key tension lies in how to balance e-cigarettes’ potential benefits with their clear risks. While e-cigarettes may offer a less harmful alternative for adults who smoke combustible cigarettes, they can appeal to young people who would have never smoked in the first place. (Siddons, 6/10)

When the Food and Drug Administration won a landmark lawsuit this week against a stem cell company, health officials hailed it as a turning point in the government’s struggle to regulate a booming industry selling unproven treatments to desperate patients. But the reaction of the company — Florida-based U.S. Stem Cell — and the industry’s ability to adapt to changing rules suggest the judge’s order may have less impact than many regulators and consumer advocates had hoped. (Wan, 6/7)

Some low-income adults in California living in the country illegally will soon get their health benefits paid for by taxpayers. Democrats in the state Legislature on Sunday agreed to make adults between the ages of 19 and 25 eligible for the state's Medicaid program. Not everyone will get those benefits, only people whose incomes are low enough to qualify for the program. State officials estimate the program will cover an additional 90,000 people at a cost of $98 million. (Beam, 6/10)

Lawmakers want to use an “extraordinary” state budget surplus to expand health care options for undocumented people while stockpiling billions of dollars in reserves in anticipation of an economic downturn, according to documents the Legislature’s Budget Conference Committee released. The agreement marks the end of months of negotiations between Newsom and the Legislature. Lawmakers face a June 15 deadline to pass the budget, which will take effect in July. (Bollag and Ashton, 6/9)

Immigrant rights advocates were disappointed in lawmakers’ opting for the less expensive option that focuses on younger adults. “The exclusion of undocumented elders from the same healthcare their U.S. citizen neighbors are eligible for means beloved community members will suffer and die from treatable conditions,” said Cynthia Buiza of the California Immigrant Policy Center. (Myers, 6/9)

Rom Rahimian, a medical student working at Banner-University Medical Center Tucson, was trying to help a 20-year-old Guatemalan woman who had been found late last year in the desert — dehydrated, pregnant and already in labor months before her due date. But the Border Patrol agents lingering in the room were making him uncomfortable. The agents remained in the obstetrics ward night and day as physicians worked to halt her labor. They were present during her medical examinations, listened in on conversations with doctors and watched her ultrasounds, Mr. Rahimian said. (Fink, 6/10)

To chants of "AMA, get out of the way!," a coalition of several hundred doctors, nurses, medical students, community organizers, and patients rallied outside the American Medical Association's (AMA) House of Delegates annual meeting to demand that the organization support a Medicare for All single-payer health system. "We are here for those who cannot be here today," Claudia Fegan, MD, national coordinator of Physicians for a National Health Program (PNHP), said as the group began gathering at the headquarters of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association, an organization of Blue Cross and Blue Shield insurers. "We are here for those who cannot afford their care. Twenty-nine million people are still uninsured and even the insured have deductibles so high they cannot afford their medications." (Frieden, 6/8)

Championed by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and other progressive Democrats, Medicare for All faces enormous political obstacles — not the least of which is a major industry lobbying effort against the plan and anything that resembles it. But should it ever become law, it would also invite constitutional challenges. (Tahir and Ollstein, 6/9)

Facing a surge in drug-resistant infections, the World Health Organization issued a plea to farmers two years ago: “Stop using antibiotics in healthy animals.” But at last year’s big swine industry trade show, the World Pork Expo in Des Moines, one of the largest manufacturers of drugs for livestock was pushing the opposite message. “Don’t wait for Pig Zero,” warned a poster featuring a giant picture of a pig peeking through an enormous blue zero, at a booth run by the drugmaker Elanco. (Hakim and Tichtel, 6/7)

Police say a 65-year-old man told them he robbed a Utah bank because he didn't have the money for medication he needed. The Salt Lake Tribune reported Friday that Glenn Douglas Mower was charged with robbery. He is accused of robbing a Key Bank branch Monday in Roy, about 32 miles north of Salt Lake City. Authorities say Mower walked into the bank, asked the teller to put money in a white paper bag and then returned to a nearby motel where he was staying. (6/7)

The profits of pharmacy middlemen — known as pharmacy benefit managers — have become a major issue in Ohio, other states and Congress during the past year. In response, the Ohio Department of Medicaid says it is undertaking major reforms. Its biggest managed-care contractor, Dayton-based CareSource, announced in April that it was firing CVS Caremark as its PBM and hiring Express Scripts to act in its place. (Schladen, 6/10)

Cincinnati's cost cutting is about to get personal for retirees who use their city insurance for Viagra and other drugs that treat impotence. City Manager Patrick Duhaney sent a memo to City Council last week outlining his plan to eliminate most coverage for erectile dysfunction medication, a move he said would save Cincinnati's retirement system about $425,000 a year. (Horn, 6/9)

Hiring decelerated in most major industry sectors in May, with four such sectors recording job losses. Professional services led the gains, adding 33,000 jobs in such areas as computer systems design, administrative support and engineering. Education and health added 27,000 jobs, a notably weaker gain than the 73,000 jobs it added in April. By contrast, construction companies pulled back sharply and grew by just 4,000 jobs after posting a gain of 30,000 in May. Retail, transportation, information and government all shed jobs. (6/7)

With the approval of the Justice Department and five key states, the $69 billion merger between Aetna and CVS was considered a done deal. But that was before a federal judge here questioned how the merger would affect the health insurance marketplace and said he would not be a “rubber stamp” on the deal. (Radelat, 6/7)

I received a form letter recently from my health clinic that told me my primary-care doctor was leaving. Her colleagues would welcome me into their care. I had been seeing her for more than a decade and didn’t want a new doctor. But when I called to ask where she was going, receptionists said they didn’t know — a response that made me wonder whether her contract prevented them from telling me. I also worried: after years of building a relationship with a doctor I trusted, would I have to start all over with a new provider? (Sohn, 6/8)

These days, Livongo is processing more than 100,000 such readings daily — a sign of the chronic disease-coaching company’s rapid growth ahead of an expected initial public offering sometime this year. It’s likely to be among the first of a new breed of health-tech startups to brave the public markets. Livongo, in particular, is poised to offer a test of whether it’s possible to overcome the nagging obstacles that for years have blocked the emergence of truly big, financially successful businesses in the sector. For the most part, these companies haven’t figured out how to scale their sales. Nor have they shown that they can improve patients’ outcomes and reduce medical costs over the long term. (Robbins, 6/10)

In Washington, the rates of patients getting opioid prescriptions and subsequently overdosing have dropped sharply — about 40% since 2009 in the case of deaths due to opioids received from health-care providers. But heroin deaths have spiked — more than fourfold since 2009, taking the lives of 306 residents in 2017. Street fentanyl has also proved increasingly fatal. As a result, there’s been little progress in driving down the rate of opioid overdoses overall, but it hasn’t kept climbing here as it has nationally. (Shapiro, 6/9)

[Michele] Bone is one of countless patients who have been abandoned by Rinova, a chain of six pain clinics in Tennessee and Virginia that abruptly closed their doors last month. Rinova promised outgoing patients it would send one more prescription through the mail and release their medical records once they had found new doctors, but numerous ex-patients say these promises have not been kept, stranding many without medication. (Kelman, 5/7)

Idaho's attorney general has filed a lawsuit against Purdue Pharma and members of the Sackler family, the company's owners, accusing them of profiting off of the nationwide opioid abuse epidemic. ABC News reported that Attorney General Lawrence Wasden (R) filed suit Monday, claiming that Purdue and members of the Sackler family mounted one of the "deadliest marketing campaigns in history" to urge doctors to prescribe opiates to patients despite the risks of addiction. (Bowden, 6/7)

Orange County mom Michelle Sabino says her daughter experienced 16 seizures in two months after she was vaccinated for diphtheria, tetanus and whooping cough when she was a baby. She’d never considered that vaccines could be dangerous. But after consulting with two physicians who both recommended brain scans, and a medical review of her family’s history and records, Sabino said she was shocked when a doctor said future vaccines could be “fatal.” A speech pathologist, Sabino now says she’s ready to quit her job and leave California to protect her daughter from a proposed law she fears would force her child to receive vaccines. (Wiley, 6/10)

Kaiser Health News: How Measles Detectives Work To Contain An Outbreak

On any given day, more than 4,000 people pass through the library at California State University-Los Angeles. On April 11, one of them had measles. The building has only one entrance, which means that anyone who entered or exited the library within two hours of that person’s visit potentially was exposed to one of the most contagious diseases on Earth. It’s the stuff of public health nightmares: Everyone at the library between 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. that day had to be identified, warned and possibly quarantined. Measles is so contagious that up to 90% of people close to an infected person who are not protected by a vaccine or previous case of the disease will become infected. (Gold, 6/10)

The chickenpox vaccine not only protects against chickenpox: A new study has found it also lowers the risk for shingles. Shingles, sometimes called herpes zoster, is a painful nerve infection and rash that can occur after recovery from a case of chickenpox or after immunization with the vaccine. It is more common in older people and can occur decades after recovery from chickenpox, but children can get it, too. (Bakalar, 6/10)

Children who are vaccinated against the virus that causes chickenpox are getting a twofer: Not only are they protected against irritating and potentially scarring chickenpox, but they appear to have a “dramatically” lower risk of developing shingles in childhood than unvaccinated kids who contract the disease, according to a large, new multiyear study. The rate of shingles cases in vaccinated children was 78% lower than it was among unvaccinated children who had contracted the virus, varicella, the authors reported Monday in the journal Pediatrics. (Branswell, 6/10)

How did you sleep last night? If you’re over 65, I hope it was better than many others your age. In a study by the National Institute on Aging of over 9,000 Americans aged 65 and older, more than half said they had difficulty falling asleep or staying asleep. Many others who believe they spend an adequate number of hours asleep nonetheless complain of not feeling rested when they get up. Chronic insomnia, which affects 5 percent to 10 percent of older adults, is more than just exhausting. It’s also linked to an increased risk of developing hypertension, Type 2 diabetes, heart attack, depression, anxiety and premature death. (Brody, 6/10)

People over 65 represent roughly 16 percent of the American population, but account for 40 percent of patients undergoing surgery in hospitals — and probably more than half of all surgical procedures. Those proportions are likely to increase as the population ages and more seniors consider surgery, including procedures once deemed too dangerous for them. Dr. Clifford Ko, a colorectal surgeon at the University of California, Los Angeles, recently performed major surgery on an 86-year-old with rectal cancer, for instance. (Span, 6/7)

Jeannine, who is 37 and lives in Burbank, Calif., has endured widespread pain since she was 8. She has been examined by dozens of doctors, but none of their X-rays, MRIs or other tests have turned up any evidence of physical injury or damage. Over the years, desperate for relief, she tried changing her diet, wore belts to correct her posture and exercised to strengthen muscles. Taking lots of ibuprofen helped, she says, but doctors warned her that taking too much could cause gastric bleeding. Nothing else eased her discomfort. On a pain scale of 0 to 10, her pain ranged from "7 to 9, regularly," she says. (Neighmond, 6/10)

Maria Mercado always knew she was different. Growing up in a boisterous Puerto Rican family in the Bronx, Mercado rarely spoke unless challenged or angry. To the outside world, she came across as a smart but shy girl, who learned to read at age 4 and couldn’t keep eye contact. For most of her school years, she had little trouble with academics — despite a severe stutter and constant daydreaming — but struggled in social settings. Even into adulthood, Mercado sometimes had a hard time verbalizing her thoughts. “Can I say this?” she asked herself. Yet only she appeared to be aware of the problem. She just didn’t understand why. (Dias, 6/7)

Dietary supplements for weight loss, energy, sexual function or muscle building are popular among young people. But they led to 1,392 adverse event reports in people under 25 from 2004 to 2015, with more than 40 percent of them severe or even fatal. A 1994 law prohibits the Food and Drug Administration from screening supplements for safety or efficacy, and requires only that manufacturers assert that their products are safe before selling them. (Bakalar, 6/10)

We all have certain numbers we’d rather not think about: weight, age and, for me, in addition to breast cancer risk, how many MRIs might be too many. What’s worse — a known risk for breast cancer (mine is 42 percent) or an undetermined risk for the diagnostic tool used to detect it? The tool I’m referring to is magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) with gadolinium contrast. Gadolinium is a rare earth metal whose presence highlights certain abnormalities, aiding in the diagnosis of many organ, musculoskeletal and soft-tissue diseases. (Resnick, 6/8)

Skin cancer is the most common malignancy in the United States, affecting more than three million people each year. Using sunscreen is one mainstay of prevention. But the recent news that sunscreen ingredients can soak into your bloodstream has caused concern. Later this year, the Food and Drug Administration will offer some official guidance on the safety of such ingredients. What should people do in the interim as summer approaches? (Carroll, 6/10)

A decade ago, spurred by the success of the Human Genome Project and the affordability of genetic sequencing, scientists began to explore the promise of “nutrigenomics.” Could personalized nutrition, informed by knowledge of an individual’s DNA, help prevent and even treat diet-related diseases? The results of early studies from Harvard, Stanford and elsewhere were compelling: Genetic differences seemed to predispose individuals to lose different amounts of weight on different types of diets. (Graber and Twilley, 6/10)

A 13-year-old patient recently talked to me about the amount of time he spends playing video games (plenty) and about his weight (heavier than he wants, and on the rise). I asked about exercise, and he told me proudly that he rides his bike a lot, now that the weather is good. And then, of course, I had to be the fun police, and ask whether he wears a helmet, and when he told me no, of course, I had to take the opportunity to deliver more good advice that I suspected he was not going to follow, and his parents were not going to enforce. (Klass, 6/10)

It started with a few people in a room, and a mountain of pain. But that handful of doctors grew into a vast, varied group of health care professionals determined to figure out how Massachusetts General Hospital might help prevent the gun violence that brought so many people to its doors. On Monday morning, MGH will announce the formation of the Mass General Center for Gun Violence Prevention, founded by two doctors whose lives were changed by shootings. (Ramos, 6/9)

On a hot August day in 2018, a felon named Charlie Vick opened fire in a gun battle on the streets of Chelsea, Mass. Hours later, he was spotted 50 miles south, at a gun shop in Woonsocket, R.I., buying more .45-caliber bullets, authorities said. The reason? Rhode Island has no law on the books requiring background checks before purchasing ammunition. Under federal law, felons are not allowed to possess ammunition of any sort, but without a state statute to regulate purchases, they can buy as many bullets as they want, authorities say. (Fitzpatrick, 6/10)

In the 20 years since the massacre at Columbine High School, the building has become a macabre tourist attraction for the curious and the obsessed. They travel from as far as Brazil or Japan, hoping to walk the halls, to look for the two teenage gunmen’s lockers. They come every day, and more come with each passing year. Now, in an effort to stop the escalating threats against the school and lessen Columbine’s perverse appeal to copycats and so-called Columbiners, school officials are proposing a radical idea: Tear it down. (Turkewitz and Healy, 6/7)

In Massachusetts, a state that prides itself on its top-quality health care, 20 percent of residents have experienced a recent medical error, and most of them said they “still feel abandoned or betrayed by their doctor,’’ a new survey shows. Researchers also calculated that errors in the state totaled 61,982 in one single year and that it cost $617 million to provide the follow-up care required by those patients as a result of the mistakes — an amount researchers called a conservative estimate. (Kowalczyk, 6/10)

Think about that as you consider a new report from state officials on the frequency and costs — financial and human — of medical errors in Massachusetts. The report estimates that at least 62,000 medical errors occur every year – 170 a day on average. Almost a third cause serious harm. And an additional 12%, many thousands every year, involve death. (Knox, 6/10)

Governor Chris Sununu has vetoed a bill that would have increased funding for Medicaid providers, saying that with a new budget in place soon, the measure is now redundant. The bill would have made an appropriation for Medicaid provider rates for mental health, substance use disorder, emergency shelter and stabilization services. The legislation would appropriate $3 million for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2019, funds to be nonlapsing. It also proposed $450,000, also non-lapsing funds, to support emergency shelter and stabilization services for people experiencing substance use disorder. (6/8)

When the twin towers crumbled on Sept. 11, 2001, emergency personnel swarmed Ground Zero. They were followed by workers who spent nearly a year removing debris and recovering victims’ remains. Many have since become belated victims of the attacks, facing conditions such as respiratory complaints, rare cancers and mental-health disorders. Thousands of responders died of illnesses related to their work on and after 9/11, and tens of thousands more are being treated for illnesses. (Blakemore, 6/8)

Oregon’s top health official wrote to Gov. Kate Brown on Friday, alerting her to a “capacity crisis” at the Oregon State Hospital as demand for trial fitness treatment escalates unabated. The official, Oregon Health Authority Director Patrick Allen, also issued directives intended to slow the flood of defendants to the psychiatric hospital in Salem. ...The Oregon State Hospital has reached capacity as the number of mentally ill defendants needing trial fitness treatment has doubled since 2012. About 60 percent are homeless, according to state figures. (Friedman, 6/7)

A Wisconsin film featuring four young people navigating mental health challenges is gaining national attention, with more than 150 schools and organizations planning to screen it in 23 states. The 27-minute film, "You're Not Alone," was produced by Milwaukee PBS and Milwaukee Journal Sentinel as a tool for schools, families and communities to start conversations about mental health. (Linnane, 6/7)

Gov. Doug Ducey is facing what could be a difficult decision in how to address a medical-marijuana bill sent to his desk by the state Legislature, even though no lawmakers voted against it. The main provisions of the bill require laboratory testing of medical marijuana sold in the state, and have bipartisan support. (Randazzo, 6/7)

A coroner in Louisiana claims based on autopsy results, a woman in the state could be the first person to die from a THC overdose. The main ingredient of cannabis (marijuana), the St. John the Baptist Coroner told The New Orleans Advocate the 39-year-old woman showed she was killed by an excess of THC. The coroner claims there were no other signs of disease or intoxication which could have led to the death other than THC and it could be the first death as a result of overdosing on the compound. (Mojica, 6/7)

The union representing 4,000 mental health clinicians at Kaiser Permanente announced Sunday that its membership voted to call off the open-ended strike they planned to start Tuesday, saying they had made progress at the bargaining table. Citing the hardship such a strike would have imposed on patients in dire need of care, Senate President Pro Tem Toni Atkins and Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon had called upon both sides to resume negotiations and reach a settlement. (Anderson, 6/9)

The prevalence of high blood pressure — more than 40 % — in African Americans in the United States is among the highest in the world, according to the American Heart Association. African Americans also tend to develop high blood pressure earlier in life, and it is usually more severe, the AHA reports. ...So now when guys head to the barbershop — so far 10 are participating — they also can have their blood pressure checked and get information on what to do if their numbers are too high. (Bordelon, 6/9)

As Sacramento County prepares next year’s budget, some question major cuts being proposed to the county agency charged with assisting at-risk adults and abused, neglected and exploited children and families. As part of the county staff-recommended budget for 2019-20, 55 unfilled jobs in the Department of Child, Family and Adult Services would be removed, including 27 full-time social workers. The proposal comes as the agency continues its years-long struggle to address regular turnover, a notable vacancy rate and large caseloads. (Yoon-Hendricks, 6/10)

On a bus tour in February, members of the state’s Environmental Justice and Equity Advisory Board wondered aloud why no signs are posted at Sutton Lake near Wilmington to warn people that the fish they catch may be unsafe to eat. Two years earlier, a Duke University study had found high levels of selenium in fish in Sutton and two other North Carolina lakes that had been used as cooling reservoirs for coal-powered energy plants. The U.S. Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry classifies selenium as “reasonably anticipated to be a human carcinogen.” (Barnes, 6/10)

While the number of children poisoned by laundry detergent pods has decreased slightly in recent years, they still pose a serious risk to young children, according to a new study. From January 2012 to December 2017, there were nearly 73,000 calls to U.S. poison-control centers about exposure to single-use liquid laundry detergent packets, or pods, according to the study published online last week in the journal Pediatrics. (Wagner, 6/9)

Quorum Health Corp. will sell Watsonville (Calif.) Community Hospital to Halsen Healthcare for up to $40 million, the organizations announced Friday after signing a definitive agreement. The transaction is expected to be completed by the end of the third quarter, subject to customary approvals and conditions. Quorum continues to shed hospitals as it looks to reduce its $1.2 billion in long-term debt. That will be an ongoing strategy through 2019, CEO Robert Fish said in the fourth-quarter earnings call. (Kacik, 6/7)

RNs are at the core of hospital care. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics projects the need for an additional 203,700 new RNs each year through 2026 to fill newly created positions and to replace retiring nurses. To meet this need, area community colleges and universities are stepping up their programs. ...To help meet demand, Lone Star College is constructing a 50,000-square-foot health care instructional building at LSC-Kingwood. It will support the LSC health care instructional program. In addition, Lone Star College is working with the Texas Board of Nursing and the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board to allow students to earn a baccalaureate degree in nursing there. (Burns, 6/9)

Joe Biden’s best claim to the Democratic presidential nomination is that he’s a moderate liberal who can pull centrist votes from Donald Trump. That reputation is vanishing by the week as he throws old positions over the side to accommodate his party’s activist left. The latest to get the heave-ho is the most startling as Mr. Biden has repudiated his four-decade support for the Hyde Amendment. Passed in 1976 and renewed every year, the bipartisan Hyde rule prohibits federal funding for abortion. It has long been seen as a middle ground in the wake of the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that overturned 50 state abortion laws. Abortion would be legal, but taxpayers who opposed abortion would not be forced to violate their conscience by paying for it. (6/7)

Maybe Joe Biden had to flip on the question of taxpayer funding for abortion in order to win the Democratic presidential nomination. All of his rivals supported that funding, and the party has become more and more aggressive on abortion. Where the 1990s Democratic platforms said abortion should be “safe, legal and rare,” the 2016 platform dropped that defensive note and included an explicit call to end the longstanding ban on using federal Medicaid funds for elective abortions.  (Ramesh Ponnuru, 6/7)

There has long been a relatively safe space for a Democratic politician, particularly a Catholic one, to inhabit on the morally fraught issue of abortion. It was the stance that then-Vice President Joe Biden took during a 2012 debate: “Life begins at conception. That’s the church’s judgment. I accept it in my personal life,” Biden said. “But I refuse to impose it on equally devout Christians and Muslims and Jews. . . . I do not believe we have a right to tell other people — women — that they can’t control their body.” (Karen Tumulty, 6/7)

We’ve come to expect flip-flops in a primary season but Joe Biden’s flip on the Hyde Amendment is unusually consequential. He has put himself in an even worse position than Hillary Clinton during the 2016 campaign. The Hyde Amendment, named for the late Rep. Henry Hyde of Illinois, is a 43-year-old scrimmage line on the abortion issue. Congress assumes a right to abortion under Roe v. Wade but doesn’t force Americans to fund it with tax dollars. Hyde has never been permanent and must be renegotiated every year across any legislation up for passage or renewal. That temporary status makes it vulnerable—especially since the Democratic National Committee platform opposed it in 2016. But Mr. Biden’s alignment with his party makes him vulnerable. (Matt Hawkins, 6/9)

When, exactly, do abortion opponents think life begins? Over the past few months there has been a rush to pass abortion bans. Most of these bans center on the idea that abortions should be banned as soon as the fetal heartbeat is detected; that’s because “a heartbeat proves that there’s life that deserves protection under law,” according to a state representative in Kentucky, Robert Goforth. On the other hand, many, including Mr. Goforth himself, also believe “life begins at conception,” as Tom Cotton, the Republican senator from Arkansas, said on “Meet the Press” last month. (Molly Jong-Fast, 6/8)

The abortion issue is more divisive than ever, thanks to extreme antiabortion legislation recently passed in some states and, lately, to Democratic presidential candidates seemingly vying to be the most pro-choicest. The newest controversy swirls around the 1976 Hyde Amendment, named for the late Rep. Henry J. Hyde (R-Ill.), which forbids the use of federal funds for abortion except in cases of rape, incest or when the mother’s life is at risk. The provision has long enjoyed a degree of bipartisan support in a nod to the millions of conscientious objectors to abortion. (Kathleen Parker, 6/7)

Missouri Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft last week rejected two proposed ballot measures that would allow voters to overturn the state’s draconian new law restricting abortion rights. Ashcroft says his hands are tied because his fellow Republicans in the Legislature designated part of the law an “emergency,” meaning it cannot be overturned by referendum. That throws it to the courts to decide whether the Legislature’s emergency designation was made in good faith, or if it was — as is obvious — merely a ploy to deny voters any opportunity to have input. So far, the ploy has worked. (6/8)

The political steam surrounding abortion is rising. Several southern states are pushing legislation to restrict abortion to very early in a pregnancy, or not allowing it at all, while some Northern states are going in the opposite direction with laws intended to bring abortion into the later stages of pregnancy. (Marc Siegel, 6/9)

The full range of sexual and reproductive health services Planned Parenthood offers have never been more important. No matter what, we remain committed to serving patients across the state and working alongside public health partners to address the many challenges facing Missouri. (Brandon Hill, 6/9)

Planned Parenthood Arizona chief Bryan Howard has complained on these pages that the abortion giant had to close several clinics because they couldn’t meet regulations. He misses the point. Women’s safety must always trump Planned Parenthood’s bottom line. (Cathi Herrod, 6/6)

After years of attacks from abortion opponents, scientists who conduct fetal-tissue research tend to keep a low profile. When the journal Nature contacted 18 such researchers for an article on “The Truth About Fetal Tissue Research,” only two agreed to speak. That’s a shame, because their research has saved countless lives and could save countless more. Most people who’ve benefited simply don’t know it. Last week the Trump administration moved to restrict this vital research. It’s more important than ever that advocates explain loudly and clearly why it matters. (6/9)

If you were paying close attention last week, you might have spotted a pattern in the news. Peeking out from behind the breathless coverage of the Trump family’s tuxedoed trip to London was a spate of deaths of immigrants in U.S. custody: Johana Medina Léon, a 25-year-old transgender asylum seeker; an unnamed 33-year-old Salvadoran man; and a 40-year-old woman from Honduras.Photos from a Border Patrol processing center in El Paso showed people herded so tightly into cells that they had to stand on toilets to breathe. (Jonathan M. Katz, 6/9)

A ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit in Boston that an inmate is entitled to receive medication for her opioid use disorder was a big win in the ongoing battle against the stigma that those with substance use disorders face on a daily basis. The controversy spawned by the decision underscores how much more work needs to be done to ensure that individuals with these disorders receive the treatment they need and are not judged simply as people of poor character making bad choices. (Kevin Doyle, 6/10)

You are at your daughter’s recital and you get a call that your elderly patient’s son needs to talk to you urgently. A colleague has a family emergency and the hospital needs you to work a double shift. Your patient’s M.R.I. isn’t covered and the only option is for you to call the insurance company and argue it out. You’re only allotted 15 minutes for a visit, but your patient’s medical needs require 45.These quandaries are standard issue for doctors and nurses. Luckily, the response is usually standard issue as well: An overwhelming majority do the right thing for their patients, even at a high personal cost. (Danielle Ofri, 6/8)

More than a century ago, Sir William Osler — probably the most celebrated doctor in modern history — gave a lecture to medical students in which he referred to doctors as belonging to “the great army of quiet workers” whose voices are not heard in the streets but who offer “consolation in sorrow, need, and sickness.” The best doctor, Osler noted, is often the one of whom the public hears the least.Nowadays, doctors are heard loud and clear by all and sundry. Social media is brimming with doctors and medical students opening their hearts, sharing their frustrations, and venting their anger. (Daniel Sokol, 6/10)

It is important to recognize individuals when they set aside their differences to solve a bigger problem, especially when it comes to health care.Our Legislature accomplished that this session by passing an important bill to protect and expand Medicaid coverage in Montana. They did so through moderate but important improvements to work that they started in a previous session. It wasn’t easy, but they accomplished it and should be congratulated. I hope, too, that it serves as a lesson and road map for how America should address our larger health care issues. (Angela McLean, 6/8)

My lifelong friend Vicki had finally hit the wall. For a long time, she’d tried to lighten the load of a friend who was facing a terminal illness. “As she got sicker, I tried to relieve every burden I could imagine,” Vicki, 61, who asked that her last name not be used for privacy reasons, told me recently. “I figured that compared to what this family was going through, no service I could offer would be too much for me.” She did this while also caring for her parents throughout their illnesses and deaths. After her friend died, Vicki says she continued to “jump to action” every time someone close to her needed help. That’s when she confessed to “compassion fatigue.” She just felt “weighed down, tired and sad,” she said, after taking care of so many loved ones. (Steven Petrow, 6/9)

It seems everyone now has a fitness tracker, either on a wristband, as a clip-on or as part of a smartwatch or smartphone. One of the commonalities of these devices is that they buzz or vibrate when the wearer reaches 10,000 steps. As a result, 10,000 steps has become a daily goal for many. The fitness industry has perpetuated this idea without much questioning — until recently.A recently published paper in the highly respected Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) found that 4,400 steps a day was strongly related to lower mortality rates when compared to 2,700 steps. As the steps increased, risk of dying decreased, until about 7,500 steps a day, when the risk benefit started to level off. (William S. Yancy Jr. and Jared Rosenberg, 6/8)

To our dismay, we in Los Angeles have become increasingly familiar with homelessness. But some of the things we “know” about the phenomenon are simply untrue. Dealing with the problem requires knowing the facts and dismissing the myths.It also requires understanding why those myths persist.Begin with the falsehood that most homeless people come from out of town, drifting here from colder climates or meaner streets in order to live a life of relative ease on L.A. sidewalks and freeway medians. (6/10)

If any state can serve as the poster child for the problems associated with ObamaCare’s Medicaid expansion, it’s Louisiana, which joined the expansion in 2016, after Democrat John Bel Edwards became governor. An audit released last year exposed ineligible Medicaid beneficiaries, including at least 1,672 people who made more than $100,000. But Louisiana’s Medicaid expansion has revealed another waste of taxpayer funds, both in the Pelican State and nationwide: the money spent providing coverage to people who already had health insurance. (Chris Jacobs, 6/7)

Gov. Gavin Newsom needs to get on board with the effort to close a loophole in California’s vaccination law. The governor inserted himself into the public health debate Saturday by voicing concern over proposed legislation that would give government officials the final say on whether a child should be granted a vaccine exemption. (6/9)

Lead paint, the longest-lasting childhood health hazard in United States history, poisons generation after generation. As a state, we must do more to prevent these tragedies from occurring — and to hold the perpetrators accountable. (Iván Espinoza-Madrigal, Laura Maslow-Armand and Fiona Danaher, 6/10)