The Oklahoma Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday that the state's constitution guarantees a "limited right" to abortions after reproductive rights activists challenged the abortion ban that was signed into law last year, with the court issuing a partial injunction on a bill prohibiting women from terminating their pregnancies while upholding another.

In May, Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt (R) signed into law two pieces legislation that made performing abortions felonies punishable by imprisonment and fines of up to $100,000 for providers. The law did not include exceptions for rape or incest.

Shortly after the bans were signed, abortion activists filed a lawsuit arguing the bills violated parts of the Oklahoma state constitution that guarantee an individual's right to liberty. The plaintiffs argued that the right to liberty was infringed upon when the state forced people to "carry pregnancies to term against their will."

In a ruling issued on Tuesday, the Oklahoma Supreme Court found that the state's bill of rights "protects the right of a woman to terminate her pregnancy in order to preserve her life."

"Having determined the Oklahoma Constitution protects the right of a woman to terminate her pregnancy in order to preserve her life, we hold that 63 0.S. Supp. 2022, § 1-731.4 does not pass strict scrutiny review and is void and unenforceable," the court's ruling stated.

The bill that was cited banned health care providers from performing or attempting to perform abortions. While it did include exceptions for medical emergencies where abortions are necessary to save a pregnant woman's life, the court found that it did not pass a "strict scrutiny review and was thus "void and unenforceable."

However, the court upheld a separate measure that also criminalizes performing abortions. That law was enacted before the U.S. Supreme Court's 1973 Roe v. Wade decision and was considered null before Roe was overturned last year. The court ruled, however, that this older legislation still allowed for a woman to terminate her pregnancy in order to "preserve her life."

Oklahoma Supreme Court Justices John Kane, Dustin Rowe, Dana Kuehn and Richard Darby dissented on the court's ruling, with Darby writing in his opinion that the law was in line with the state's constitution.

Reproductive rights activists expressed dismay at the continued lack of abortion access that would occur in light of this ruling.

"Today’s decision means most Oklahomans will still not be able to access abortion care, a blow to the entire region. Since May 2022, abortion has been completely unavailable in Oklahoma," the Center for Reproductive Rights said in a statement.

Since the overturning of Roe, many doctors in states with strict abortion bans have been left in limbo when it comes to patients, many of whom require miscarriages for pregnancies that are no longer viable.

Earlier this month, a group of Texas women filed a lawsuit against the state, arguing that the abortion ban in Texas endangered their lives due to the vague language over when a physician can terminate a pregnancy to save a woman's life. Under Texas law, no abortions can be performed as long as a fetal heartbeat can still be detected, and the current ban does not specify what procedures can be performed when a pregnant woman's life is in danger.

House Republicans are turning to the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) response to the baby formula shortage as part of its oversight of the Biden administration. 

Reps. James Comer (R-Ky.), the chairman of the House Oversight Committee, and Lisa McClain (R-Mich.), the chairwoman of the Health Care and Financial Services Subcommittee, sent a letter to FDA Commissioner Robert Califf on Tuesday saying that the committee is continuing to investigate the FDA’s response to the shortage. 

Comer and McClain requested a wide range of documents and communications to better understand the response. 

The formula crisis began last spring when Abbott Nutrition recalled several of its major products after two infants died from a rare infection that they received from ingesting the company’s products. The recall exacerbated an already-existing shortage from supply chain issues that were prevalent during the height of the coronavirus pandemic.

Republicans have criticized the FDA and the Biden administration for not acting sooner to address the crisis. 

While the FDA brought in millions of pounds of powdered formula from other countries to address the shortage, the agency did acknowledge their delay in responding to the crisis. 

The two Republicans criticized the FDA’s commissioner for announcing that no one at the agency would be fired from their role over the response to the shortage. Frank Yiannas, who served as the FDA’s deputy commissioner for food policy and response, submitted his resignation from his position in January. 

The FDA initiated an overhaul of its food safety and nutrition division in January following crises like the baby formula shortage. The agency has received criticism that its food safety program does not receive enough resources. 

The restructuring will combine the food safety and nutrition divisions into a single human foods program led by a deputy commissioner. The agency said at the end of last month that it planned to finalize its proposal in the fall. 

They requested that Califf provide more information — including all communications between or among the FDA, Department of Health and Human Services and White House staff referring to the shortage, all documents and communications relating to the planned reorganization and all documents and communications related to the decision to not reassign or fire anyone involved in handling the shortage. 

Comer and McClain requested the information by April 4. 

The health care and financial services subcommittee is also set to hold a hearing next Tuesday on the shortage, including a delayed response from the FDA to a whistleblower complaint about a bacteria outbreak at an Abbott baby formula plant in Michigan. 

A former quality assurance manager issued the report months before the crisis, but Yiannas told The Washington Post in an interview in May that he did not see the whistleblower complaint until four months after it was sent. 

The House has already conducted some investigations into the situation, with Califf himself testifying before a House Appropriations subcommittee as the crisis became apparent in May.

NEW HAVEN, Conn. (WTNH) – Tick-borne illness cases in the United States are up 25% since 2011, according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, including a rare disease now spreading in the U.S. Northeast.

The CDC says cases of babesiosis, which can cause illness ranging from asymptomatic to severe, have increased significantly in Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island and Vermont. The disease is already considered endemic in Connecticut, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island and Wisconsin.

The tick-borne disease, which is growing in cases but still rare, is transmitted from the bites of black-legged ticks. 

Babesiosis infections can be asymptomatic or cause mild to severe illnesses that can be fatal. Symptoms, which can last for several weeks, typically show up between one and four weeks after a bite. The most common symptoms include fever, chills, sweating, fatigue, and myalgias. They also include hepatosplenomegaly, or an enlarged liver, and hemolytic anemia, a disorder that causes red blood cells to be destroyed faster than they can be created.

Yale scientist Goudarz Molaei told Nexstar's WTNH one of the factors that could be causing the increase in tick-borne diseases could be shorter winters. 

"Understandably because of climate change and other environmental conditions we are seeing increases in tick abundance and tick activity," Molaei said. 

The CDC states on its website:

Because warmer average temperatures can mean longer warm seasons, earlier spring seasons, shorter and milder winters, and hotter summers, conditions might become more hospitable for many carriers of vector-borne diseases.

When will the Lyme disease vaccine be available?

Molaei said that, in Connecticut, for example, one in two ticks on average is infected with at least one disease agent. 

"We have to be aware of the areas that might be infested with ticks, so wooded areas, tall grasses areas, try to avoid those areas at any costs," he said. 

Molaei says if you have no other choice, you'll have to consistently perform a tick check on yourself and your pets, as they can often bring home ticks with them.

The CDC is urging anyone spending extended time outdoors to use tick repellents and wear long sleeve shirts and pants if they can. 

If you are bitten by a tick, the CDC recommends the following:

• Use fine-tipped tweezers to grasp the tick as close to the skin as you can.
• Pull upward with steady, even pressure. Don’t twist or jerk the tick.
• After removing the tick, clean the bite area and your hands with rubbing alcohol or soap
  and water.
• Dispose of the tick by flushing it down the toilet. If you would like to bring the tick to your healthcare provider for identification, put it in rubbing alcohol or place it in a sealed
  bag/container.

WASHINGTON (WPIX) – The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration has issued a public safety alert warning Americans about the widespread threat of fentanyl mixed with xylazine, an animal tranquilizer commonly referred to as “tranq.”

"Xylazine is making the deadliest drug threat our country has ever faced, fentanyl, even deadlier," said DEA Administrator Ann Milgram. "DEA has seized xylazine and fentanyl mixtures in 48 of 50 states."

The DEA said xylazine and fentanyl drug mixtures place users at a higher risk of suffering a fatal drug overdose.

Xylazine is an FDA-approved drug used in animals as a sedative and pain reliever. It can depress breathing, blood pressure, heart rate, and body temperature to critical levels.

The side effects in humans, which can be serious and life-threatening, are much like those typically seen with opioid use. Despite this, the DEA warns naloxone, or Narcan, can't be used to reverse the effects of xylazine as it can with opioids.

"Still, experts always recommend administering naloxone if someone might be suffering a drug poisoning," the DEA said.

Among the side effects of tranq are ulcers that crop up on various parts of the body, which sometimes lead to the loss of fingers or limbs.

Some experts have said xylazine was introduced illegally into the human drug supply to extend the high of heroin and fentanyl.

Xylazine-positive overdose deaths increased in all regions of the U.S. from 2020 to 2021, DEA data shows, though it isn't clear when such deaths were recorded.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 107,735 Americans died from drug poisonings between August 2021 and August 2022, with 66% of those deaths involving synthetic opioids like fentanyl. The chemicals used to produce fentanyl come from China and are exported to Mexican drug cartels, which make fentanyl in clandestine labs south of the U.S. border.

Last month, the FDA said it would restrict imports of xylazine, meaning shipments of the animal tranquilizer face heightened FDA scrutiny. Shipments of the drug, as well as the ingredients used to make it, could also be detained to ensure they are meant for legitimate use.

The Hill's Nathaniel Weixel contributed to this report.

The only hospital in Sandpoint, Idaho, has announced it will no longer provide obstetrical services, blaming stringent restrictions on reproductive care enacted by the state’s government. 

“Without pediatrician coverage to manage neonatal resuscitations and perinatal care, it is unsafe and unethical to offer routine labor and delivery services,” Bonner General Health said in a statement.

The hospital said that the decision to remove obstetrical services was an “emotional and difficult” one, citing the loss of pediatrician coverage, changing demographics and the state’s recent laws surrounding abortion. 

According to the Idaho Statesman, which first reported the change at Bonner General, Idaho has one of the most severe bans on abortion in the U.S., with state physicians facing felony charges and revocation of their licenses if they violate the law. 

“Highly respected, talented physicians are leaving. Recruiting replacements will be extraordinarily difficult,” the hospital said in its news release. “In addition, the Idaho Legislature continues to introduce and pass bills that criminalize physicians for medical care nationally recognized as the standard of care. Consequences for Idaho Physicians providing the standard of care may include civil litigation and criminal prosecution, leading to jail time or fines.”

The hospital noted that it plans to continue providing women's health services and to coordinate care for “OB patients scheduled to deliver in May and after.” 

Sandpoint has a reported population of more than 9,000 people.

“Lastly, thank you all for the decades of partnership and for entrusting your care with our outstanding Obstetricians and Labor & Delivery staff on our team,” the hospital said in its news release. “The closure of obstetrics will not be an easy transition for our Bonner General Health teams or our community and surrounding area.”

GOP-led states across the country moved to sharply curtain abortion after the Supreme Court struck down the nearly 50-year-old Roe v. Wade decision last year. Advocates and health care groups have repeatedly warned of the risks such moves pose to women's health.

“We have made every effort to avoid eliminating these services,” Ford Elsaesser, the president of Bonner General's board said in its statement. “We hoped to be the exception, but our challenges are impossible to overcome now.”

Bonner General delivered 265 babies in 2022, according to the Statesman.

Candida aurism, a rare and sometimes deadly fungal disease, is spreading through the U.S., the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) warned this week, citing a “dramatic” increase in cases.

The fungus, which affects primarily old people and those with weakened immune systems, rejects treatments from traditional antifungal medications and has a mortality rate of up to 60 percent, health officials said.

There were at least 2,377 confirmed cases in the U.S. in 2022, according to CDC statistics. That total was a steep jump from the 1,474 cases in 2021 and continued a rapid increase from 2020, when there were just 757 confirmed cases.

Health officials said that the fungus’s resistance to antifungal medication is “particularly concerning” because those medications are often the first option for treatment, saying it necessitates research into better protection and prevention measures against the fungus.

“The rise in echinocandin-resistant cases and evidence of transmission is particularly concerning because echinocandins are first-line therapy for invasive Candida infections, including C auris,” a research paper into the spread of the fungus in the Annals of Internal Medicine said. “These findings highlight the need for improved detection and infection control practices to prevent spread of C auris.”

The disease has now been tracked in half of the states in the U.S., and CDC officials said it was likely that the coronavirus pandemic worsened the spread of the fungus, as the increased attention on the COVID-19 virus meant there was less emphasis on screening for C. auris. 

The virus was first reported in Japan in 2009, but researchers have tracked the earliest strain to South Korea in 1996. The fungus does not usually present a risk to young people.

A political action committee (PAC) created to advocate for psychedelic medicine use in the country aims to elect leaders to support pro-psilocybin reforms. 

NBC News reported Monday that the newly created Psychedelic Medicine PAC wants to elect leaders who support the therapeutic use of psychedelic substances such as psilocybin, ketamine and MDMA (ecstasy). 

Psychedelic Medicine PAC executive director and co-founder Ryan Rodgers told NBC News that the group is also in the early stages of fundraising, noting that it has reached out to all levels of donors interested in funding the PAC. 

The PAC also wants to secure federal funding for more education and research on psychedelic medicine use, aiming to raise $10 million in its first year as well, according to NBC News. 

"We have to convince a historically stubborn audience around psychedelics that it’s not the 1960s," Rodgers said.

"People aren't going to stare into the sun for their eyes to blow out. People aren't going to jump off a building," he said. "This is about healing trauma. It's not about recreation."

Advocates have been pushing for the therapeutic use of psychedelic drugs, arguing that they are safer and more effective than prescription drugs, with some recent clinical studies backing advocates' claims. 

Recently, the Biden administration has explored the possibility of launching a task force that focuses on the research and study psychedelics in the hopes of the Food and Drug Administration approving the therapy use of the drugs in the future, NBC News reported. 

Earlier this month, Reps. Lou Correa (D-Ca.) and Jack Bergman (R-Mich) relaunched the  Congressional Psychedelics Advancing Therapies (PATH) Caucus, as a path to “address ways to alleviate the national mental health crisis through psychedelic science and research.”

The group also said it hopes to secure buy-in from both Republicans and Democrats for their latest push, NBC News noted.

"We want to ensure that what we're advocating for doesn't create an opposition to the issue within the halls of Congress," Psychedelic Medicine PAC’s co-founder and executive director Melissa Lavasani told the media outlet. "We've seen how some of the strategies employed by the cannabis reform movement have been really divisive and that's really delayed some of the progress. That's a real lesson learned."

Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador told U.S. lawmakers over the weekend that he would personally work with China to quell trans-Pacific shipments of fentanyl precursors that are processed into the deadly drug in Mexico, according to two of the American representatives.

The commitment was made in a long meeting in Mexico City over the weekend, where López Obrador discussed an array of issues with a bipartisan group of eight senators and four House members.

"One of the interesting parts is he agreed to meet with China on how they could prevent getting some of the raw materials, the precursors, from China," Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-Texas) told The Hill.

"So that in itself acknowledges the fact that China is sending these things through, mainly through Manzanillo and some of the ports on that side of Mexico."

A Mexican official said the meeting was respectful and constructive but did not confirm the specific claim.

López Obrador tweeted Sunday evening that “several topics were dealt with in mutual respect and to benefit our peoples.”

His comments to the lawmakers come after weeks of cross-border bickering over issues tied to the fentanyl trade, including a Republican proposal to label Mexican cartels as foreign terrorist organizations.

That proposal piqued the famously irascible López Obrador, setting off a back-and-forth with GOP lawmakers such as Sen. Lindsey Graham (S.C.), a key proponent of the terrorist designation.

But beyond the public-facing incendiary rhetoric, López Obrador has been quietly meeting with U.S. lawmakers for policy discussions.

He had last met with a bipartisan delegation on Feb. 20, which he followed up with the larger meeting over the weekend.

The delegation this weekend included Sens. John Cornyn (R-Texas), Chris Coons (D-Del.), Jerry Moran (R-Kan.), Mike Lee (R-Utah), Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.) and Peter Welch (D-Vt.), as well as Reps. Henry Cuellar (D-Texas), Gonzales, Veronica Escobar (D-Texas), and Maria Elvira Salazar (R-Fla.).

Though an array of topics from energy policy to cross-border trade and agricultural policy were discussed, two lawmakers who spoke to The Hill were particularly struck by the Mexican president's quick pledge to engage with China on fentanyl.

"For him to say, 'I will formally ask China, request China to stop sending fentanyl' — because we're talking about precursors, and he said for sending fentanyl to Mexico — all of us just kind of looked at each other and the ambassador," Cuellar said.

"Afterwards we spoke and we said, 'Hey, that's very significant.'" 

López Obrador's pledge to stop precursors was seen as an implicit recognition that clandestine labs run by drug cartels play a key role in producing the fentanyl that is feeding the opioid crisis in U.S. communities.

"He had the military there and other folks and [talked about] how they've gone after those labs. So we did talk about fentanyl a lot. But one of the things that we pushed them on was that those precursors were coming in from China," said Cuellar.

"And then he turned around and he said very specifically said, 'I will talk to China about the precursors coming into the United States.'"

That recognition is significant because López Obrador's official stance has been that no such labs exist in Mexican territory.

"National security authorities have no record of fentanyl production in Mexico, but they place our country as a traffic zone for that opioid and its precursors, which come mostly from Asia," read a press release by the country's foreign ministry last week.

The refusal to publicly recognize the existence of drug labs — even as they've been independently documented and as Mexican security services expend significant resources to combat them — could be part of an internal political environment that rewards López Obrador for confrontational bursts against the United States.

Those flourishes and López Obrador's tendency to filibuster potentially confrontational events were at the center of members' concerns ahead of the meeting.

"I was a little, I wouldn't say skeptical but unsure of how valuable the meeting was going to be," Gonzales said.

"And it turned out to be, we had a four-hour discussion and then we had an hour and a half lunch afterwards. And it was candid. I mean, I didn't always get the answers that I wanted and sometimes you had to press, ask questions several different ways. But they didn't shy away from anything, and it was a dialogue," he added.

President Biden on Monday signed legislation to declassify information related to the origins of COVID-19 after the measure was passed unanimously in Congress.

The House had passed the bill earlier this month, but the White House had been non-committal about whether Biden would sign it into law.

“We need to get to the bottom of COVID-19's origins to help ensure we can better prevent future pandemics,” Biden said in a statement. “My Administration will continue to review all classified information relating to COVID–19's origins, including potential links to the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

"In implementing this legislation, my Administration will declassify and share as much of that information as possible, consistent with my constitutional authority to protect against the disclosure of information that would harm national security.”

The president noted that he directed intelligence agencies in 2021 to investigate the virus’ origins.

The legislation, titled the COVID-19 Origin Act, was originally sponsored by Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.). The bill directs the Director of National Intelligence to “declassify any and all information relating to potential links between the Wuhan Institute of Virology and the origin” of COVID-19. 

That, according to the measure, includes “activities performed by the Wuhan Institute of Virology with or on behalf of the People’s Liberation Army” and “coronavirus research or other related activities performed at the Wuhan Institute of Virology prior to the outbreak of COVID-19.”

The bill passed the House a short time after reports indicated that the Department of Energy determined a lab leak was the most likely cause of the COVID-19 pandemic, though the White House denied that there was any clear consensus.

“The intelligence community and the rest of the government is still looking at this,” John Kirby, a White House national security spokesperson, said at a press briefing in late February.

Republicans in particular have long held that COVID-19, which has killed more than 1 million Americans since the onset of the pandemic two years ago, began to spread after it leaked from a lab in Wuhan, China. 

Some experts and government officials have been more cautious in their language, arguing it is not clear whether the virus originated in a lab or spread from animals to humans. 

Actor Jason Sudeikis and the cast of “Ted Lasso” joined the White House daily press briefing on Monday ahead of a meeting with President Biden to discuss efforts to address mental health.

Sudeikis — who plays the title character on the Apple TV+ show, which has included multiple episodes touching on mental health — called on Americans to not be afraid to ask for help.

“While it's easier said than done, we also have to know that we shouldn't be afraid to ask for help ourselves,” Sudeikis said. “And that does take a lot, especially when it's something that has such a negative stigma to it such as mental health, and that doesn’t need to be that way.”

“I know in this town a lot of folks don’t always agree … but I truly believe we should all do our best to take care of each other,” he added.

Alongside press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, Sudeikis was joined at the podium by actors Brett Goldstein, who plays Roy Kent; Hannah Waddingham, who plays Rebecca Welton; Brendan Hunt, who plays Coach Beard; and Toheeb Jimoh, who plays Sam Obisanya.

Sudeikis and the rest of the cast will meet with Biden and first lady Jill Biden later on Monday. The actor said the White House is “working very hard” to make sure that mental health resources are a viable option to as many Americans as possible.

“No matter who you are, no matter where you live, no matter who you voted for, we all probably, I assume, we all know someone…that’s struggled, that’s felt isolated, that’s felt anxious, that’s felt alone,” Sudeikis said.

“Check in with you know, your neighbor, your coworker, your friends, your family, and ask how they're doing and listen,” he added.

Sudeikis took a question from actor James Lance, who plays reporter Trent Crimm on the show and who was in the briefing room. He asked Sudeikis, who has roots in Kansas City, how he feels about Kansas City being one of the options for hosting city for the 2026 World Cup.

Other actors, including those who play Jamie Tartt and Dani Rojas, also stood in the briefing room during the appearance.

Sudeikis, on his way out of the briefing, was asked to do his Biden impression. He played Biden on “Saturday Night Live.”

“They got the real one here now,” he said.

California lawmakers are pushing forward a first-of-its-kind bill that seeks to rid food products of five chemicals linked to cancer and developmental issues in children.

The legislation, AB 418, seeks to prohibit the manufacture, sale, delivery and distribution of food products that contain brominated vegetable oil, potassium bromate, propylparaben, red dye 3 or titanium dioxide.

Introduced by Democratic State Assemblymembers Jesse Gabriel and Buffy Wicks at the beginning of February, the bill has since been referred to the committees on health and environmental safety and toxic materials.

“The goal of this bill is to protect kids and families and consumers across the state of California by banning the use of five toxic chemicals that have well-documented risks of harm,” Gabriel said at a recent webinar about the bill. 

“These are chemicals that are banned in the European Union,” Gabriel continued, noting that the compounds have been linked to cancer, reproductive problems and development and behavioral issues in kids.

Gabriel attributed the ongoing use of these chemicals in the U.S. to “some major weaknesses” in the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) approval process.

One “giant loophole,” he explained, has meant that “the overwhelming majority of chemicals in our food here in the United States get no meaningful independent review by the FDA.”

While the FDA has yet to prohibit these compounds, many major grocery chains and restaurants have already taken initiative to do so, Gabriel noted.

He particularly credited Coca Cola, Pepsi, Gatorade, Papa John’s, Panera, Dunkin Donuts, Whole Foods and Kroger for implementing such changes.

“We're not looking to ban any foods or any products. We just want folks to switch to safer alternatives,” Gabriel said.

For each of the chemicals that the legislation seeks to ban, there exists “a readily available and safer alternative — and in many cases, a cheaper alternative,” according to Gabriel.

Many foods and candies that still contain the chemicals “are specifically marketed and targeted toward kids, in many cases disproportionately targeted towards kids in Black and brown communities,” the assemblymember warned.

Echoing Gabriel’s sentiments, Wicks stressed that she has “come to this issue really as a mom” who doesn’t want to worry about whether her kids “are eating toxic chemicals.”

“The additives that have been mentioned are not a rarity that can be easily avoided,” Wicks said. “They are heavily present across the aisles of our grocery stores, including countless snacks that are actually marketed to children.”

Stressing that the FDA banned red dye no. 3 from use in cosmetics in 1990, Wicks questioned why it is still acceptable to be putting this compound into children’s bodies.

“If the FDA is not going to keep our communities safe, then it's up to us here in the states to take decisive and swift action on this,” Wicks said.

The Hill has reached out to the FDA multiple times for comment.

As far as the companies that produce the chemicals are concerned, a spokesperson for the American Chemistry Council (ACC) trade group shared a recent letter opposing the bill, while also referring The Hill to the Consumer Brands Association (CBA).

The letter, sent last week to the chair of the California State Assembly Committee on Health, makes an argument against AB 418, on behalf of 11 organizations “that represent manufacturers, distributors and retailers of food and beverages,” including the ACC and CBA.

Asserting that “food safety is a paramount concern to us and our members,” the letter said that AB 418 “usurps the comprehensive food safety and approval system.”

“All five of these additives have been thoroughly reviewed by the federal and state systems and many international scientific bodies and continue to be deemed safe,” the letter stated.

The writers acknowledged that in November 2022, a group of advocates petitioned for the removal of red dye no. 3 under the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act — but that the petition is open for public comment until April.

“The federal government and the state of California have developed one of the world's most robust and protective systems for food safety,” the letter concluded. “We encourage the Legislature to allow that system to do this critical work.”

The Hill has also reached out to the CBA for comment.

Gabriel and Wicks, however, maintained a sense of urgency in ridding neighborhood grocery stores of products that contain these chemicals — and following in the footsteps of other places that have taken such steps.

“We don't love our kids any less here in the state of California than they do in Europe,” Gabriel said. “And we need to take the same steps to protect our kids.”

California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) on Saturday announced the state is manufacturing its own insulin and capping the cost at $30.

California's CalRx initiative has partnered with nonprofit generic drug manufacturer CIVICA to make the drug and bring the price down by around 90 percent, according to the governor's office.

"California will be manufacturing some of America’s most affordable insulin. The new CalRx insulin will be just $30. It will be available to all Californians -- and across the nation," Newsom said on Twitter.

The move follows an executive order Newsom signed on his first day in office back in 2019, aimed at bringing down the cost of prescription drugs.

"It’ll cost us $30 to manufacture and distribute, and that’s how much the consumer can buy it for. You don’t need a voucher or coupon to access this price, and it’s available to everybody regardless of insurance plan," reads a release from the governor's office detailing the plan.

But it will still take a while for the low-cost drug to hit store shelves — the governor's office said Sunday that CIVICA and the California Health and Human Services Agency are still working together to identify a potential manufacturing facility in the state.

Newsom also announced Saturday that the state will move next to manufacture its own naloxone, a drug used to counteract the effects of an opioid overdose.

President Biden last week reiterated his administration's focus on lowering health care costs, including the high cost of insulin.

The drugmaker Eli Lilly earlier this month announced it's cutting the list prices for its most popular insulin products by 70 percent and capping out-of-pocket costs at $35 per month, which was followed by similar moves from companies Novo Nordisk and Sanofi amid mounting pressure on drug companies to. bring down their prices.

Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon (R) signed a bill Friday to ban abortion pills from being used in the state, becoming the first in the country to specifically prohibit that form of abortion outside of a full ban on the procedure. 

Blanket bans on all forms of abortion have already taken effect in 13 states, and 15 states have placed restrictions on access to abortion pills, but Wyoming is the first to sign off on separate legislation outlawing the pills, which have become the most common method for abortion. 

Conservatives have pushed back against access to abortion pills in recent months following the initial prohibitions on abortion going into effect after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June. 

A U.S. district judge in Texas heard a legal challenge earlier this week to the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) approval of mifepristone, a drug that blocks hormones necessary for pregnancy. Mifepristone is one of two abortion pills available nationwide and has been used by more than 3 million women since the FDA approved it to induce abortion up to 10 weeks into a pregnancy in 2000. 

Wyoming’s ban on abortion pills is set to take effect in July if legal action does not block it. 

Gordon said in a release that he also “allowed” an updated abortion ban to go into effect that will prohibit the procedure in all cases except for instances of rape, incest, a lethal fetal anomaly that will prevent the fetus from surviving and to protect the life of the mother. 

Anyone who performs an abortion in violation of the law could face up to five years in prison or a $20,000 fine or both. 

The law seeks to replace a trigger abortion ban that went into effect after Roe was overturned but has been put on pause by the courts amid lawsuits arguing it violates the state constitution.

Gordon said he is concerned the new law will cause a new lawsuit to be filed and further delay a determination about the constitutionality of an abortion ban in Wyoming. He said the legislature has been continually making “minor tweaks” to the state’s abortion law each year, delaying a final decision from the courts. 

He said the legislature should place a constitutional amendment referendum on the ballot for the people of the state to decide if they want a ban in the state constitution. 

“If the Legislature wants to expressly address how the Wyoming Constitution treats abortion and defines healthcare, then those issues should be vetted through the amendment process laid out in Article 20 of the Wyoming Constitution and voted on directly by the people,” Gordon said. 

Antonio Serrano, the advocacy director for the Wyoming American Civil Liberties Union, slammed Gordon’s decision to sign the abortion pill ban. 

“A person’s health, not politics, should guide important medical decisions — including the decision to have an abortion,” Serrano said in a statement. 

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

President Biden's budget proposal includes ambitious measures seeking to bring down health care costs, but the divided government poses a steep challenge to these proposals, and lawmakers have yet to indicate where they're willing to come together.

Biden's budget proposes increasing discretionary funding for the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) by $14.8 billion over 2023, raising taxes on people making more than $400,00 a year to keep Medicaid solvent, making ObamaCare tax premiums permanent and enacting a $35 cap on monthly insulin costs across the commercial market.

Republicans leaders have already stated that a tax increase is a nonstarter, and GOP lawmakers have indicated a desire to cut the Affordable Care Act (ACA) tax premiums that Biden is seeking to set in stone.

While Republicans have not yet released their own budget plan, which Biden has not hesitated to point out while promoting his proposal, they are expected to call for cuts in health care spending in some areas, such as the ACA and Medicaid. Programs including Medicare and Social Security have been deemed off the table, but lawmakers in the party insist that cuts are necessary to address the national debt.

With the House under GOP control, compromises will have to be made in order for the budget to pass in Congress. Democratic senators seemed optimistic on Thursday that they could come together with their Republican colleagues on a few issues.

Sen. Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.) said he wasn't aware of any measures that Republicans had expressed an openness to considering yet, but pointed to the ACA tax credits as one where he felt bipartisanship could occur.

"There's constituents in every one of our states that benefit from these credits, and when I hear all my colleagues talk about issues that constituents are facing, every one of us is concerned about higher costs and whatever the space may be," Luján said. "As someone that survived a stroke, I can tell you how important it is to have access to care. It's life-saving."

Fellow Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions member Tim Kaine (D-Va.) signaled a degree of confidence in several issues that he felt both sides could come together on.

"I was pleased to see good solid investments on the technology on the border that can be used to stop fentanyl from coming in and that should be a place where we can work together," Kaine said. "Some of the child care stuff, we got some good, solid [Republican] votes on that with an omni last year so there may be some possibilities there."

Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) said he appreciated the effort and the amount of measures that Biden had put into his budget.

"A lot of them I disagree with. On the health care front, we're going through them, so I don't have a response for it yet," said Romney.

When asked which of Biden's health care proposals he was open to considering, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) said he wanted to see expansions in health savings accounts (HSA), which were not included in the president's budget.

HSAs are savings accounts where pre-tax dollars can be contributed towards for the purpose of qualified medical expenses. Individuals can only contribute to HSAs if they have a high deductible health plan. In December, Paul introduced legislation that would allow more people to contribute to HSAs, regardless of if they have insurance or not, and also expand what expenses HSA contributions could go towards.

A new analysis of genetic information conducted by an international group of researchers has found evidence to suggest that COVID-19 originated from infected animals sold at a market in Wuhan.

As was first reported by The Atlantic, French evolutionary biologist Florence Débarre recently uncovered genetic data from the global virology database GISAID. The data had been submitted by Chinese researchers who collected the genetic sequences from the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market, which has been scrutinized as being the epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Despite the name, thousands mammals were found to have been sold at the market, where they were kept in cramped and unhygienic spaces.

The genetic data suggested that raccoon dogs being sold at the market could have been carrying and shedding the SARS-CoV-2 virus at the time. The analysis, which is not conclusive, is being led by researchers Kristian Andersen, Edward Holmes and Michael Worobey.

In communications with Atlantic writer Katherine J. Wu, Andersen said they did not know if raccoon dogs were the immediate hosts of the virus to infect humans, but said they were "high" on his list of potential hosts, among others.

These findings, which have not been published, were presented to the World Health Organization's (WHO) Scientific Advisory Group for the Origins of Novel Pathogens on Tuesday. The journal Science noted that the research submitted to GISAID has since been removed at the request of the original submitters.

This new evidence adds further fuel to the ongoing lab-leak versus natural origins debate, which has recently gained new momentum with the recent conclusion from the Energy Department that the COVID-19 originated from a Chinese research lab.

Proponents of the lab-leak theory have fervently argued that it cannot be a coincidence that COVID-19 was first detected in Wuhan, near the Wuhan Institute of Virology, where research on coronaviruses was being conducted.

However, opponents to this theory argue that there isn't enough evidence to suggest there was a lab leak and also point out that previous outbreaks of coronaviruses have had confirmed animals sources.

A consensus on COVID-19's origins is far from being reached, and some researchers question whether a conclusive answer will ever come forward, particularly with China's continued resistance to providing further data.

In its 2021 report on the potential origins of COVID-19, the WHO gave likely credence to the animal transmission theory, pointing to bats or minks as possible reservoirs for the disease. The organization stated at the time that further information on supply chain of the Huanan market would be needed.

Tracking down the origins of a virus often takes years, but previous efforts have traced back to animal origins. Researchers have linked human infections of MERS, a virus in coronavirus family that was first reported in 2012, to interactions with infected camels.

French pharmaceutical company Sanofi, one of the top three insulin manufacturers for the U.S., announced on Thursday it would be cutting the list price for its most prescribed insulin product Lantus by 78 percent, joining fellow major insulin manufacturers in drastically minimizing the prices of some of their insulin products.

Along with cutting down the price of Lantus, a long acting injection insulin, the company said it would be reducing the cost of its fast-acting insulin product Apidra by 70 percent.

Sanofi announced it would also be enacting a $35 cap on out-of-pocket costs for Lantus for patients with commercial insurance coverage as well as capping costs for uninsured patients through its various savings programs.

“Sanofi believes that no one should struggle to pay for their insulin and we are proud of our continued actions to improve access and affordability for millions of patients for many years," Sanofi's head of U.S. general medicines Olivier Bogillot said in a statement.

"We launched our unbranded biologic for Lantus at 60 percent less than the Lantus list price in June 2022 but, despite this pioneering low-price approach, the health system was unable to take advantage of it due to its inherent structural challenges," Bogillot continued. "We are pleased to see others join our efforts to help patients as we now accelerate the transformation of the U.S. insulin market."

These price cuts will go into effect beginning on Jan. 1, 2024.

This action comes on the tails of fellow insulin manufacturers Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk announcing similar moves to reduce the prices of some of their commonly used insulin products. The three manufacturers control the vast majority of the global insulin market.

Eli Lilly was the first of the companies to announce its price cuts, calling on other companies at the time of to follow in doing so. Novo Nordisk followed soon after, announcing earlier this week that it would reducing the prices of four of its “legacy products” by 65 to 75 percent.

The Biden administration has called for $35 caps on insulin ever since a cap was included in the Inflation Reduction Act for Medicare beneficiaries. The administrative has pushed for this measure to be expanded to all patients since the passing of the Inflation Reduction Act.

In his budget proposal released last week, President Biden included a provision that would cap the cost of a monthly insulin prescription at $35 across the commercial market.

The White House and Democrats in Congress have lauded the decisions from the medical manufacturers, with Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) crediting public pressure for these deep cuts in insulin prices.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Thursday touted his handling of the Covid-19 pandemic, saying that his willingness to buck the advice of federal health officials in some of the darkest days of the outbreak prevented his state from becoming a “Faucian dystopia.”

“Florida, we played an important role over the last three years,” DeSantis said at an event in Winter Haven, Fla. marking the three-year anniversary of the pandemic’s onset.

“I think we were one of the first states to see the experts were getting it wrong and we resolved to charge a different course,” he continued. “We are not going to let this state descend into a Faucian dystopia, not on our watch.”

DeSantis’s remarks amounted to something of a victory lap for the Florida governor, who’s preparing for a likely 2024 presidential bid. While he’s repeatedly brushed off questions about a White House run, he’s widely expected to make a final decision late this spring.

While he ordered a statewide lockdown shortly after the onset of the pandemic in 2020, he eventually carved out a national reputation as a fierce critic of many of the Covid-related restrictions pushed by federal health officials like Anthony Fauci, the former head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. 

Speaking alongside state Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo on Thursday, DeSantis rehashed his long-running beef with the federal response to the outbreak, proclaiming that the “experts that designed” many of the pandemic-era policies – school and business closures, mask mandates and the like – “were wrong about almost everything.”

To be sure, Florida was hit particularly hard by the pandemic. Johns Hopkins University estimates that the state has seen more than 7.5 million cases of Covid-19 and nearly 87,000 deaths since the outbreak began. 

Yet DeSantis’s laissez-faire response to the outbreak has been one of his most defining policy moves of his time in the governor’s mansion, endearing him to conservatives nationwide and catapulting him to the top-tier of current or prospective Republican presidential candidates.

Ladapo, a DeSantis appointee who has questioned the safety of mRNA Covid-19 vaccines, also offered praise for DeSantis’s handling of the pandemic, saying that the governor made “the right decision” even when he faced criticism from federal officials and public health experts for his response.

“The reality is that Florida and Gov. DeSantis’s leadership and the decisions he made for this state, the direction he went, was absolutely correct,” Ladapo said. 

Maternal mortality rates for American women rose again in 2021, hitting Black women particularly hard, according to newly released data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

There were 32.9 deaths for every 100,000 live births in 2021, up from 23.8 in 2020 and 20.1 in 2019, per the CDC. Among Black women, the maternal mortality rate rose to 69.9, about 2.5 times that of both white and Hispanic women.

The Biden administration has previously sought to address the country’s maternal health crisis, on which the U.S. differs drastically from other developed nations. As of 2020, the U.S. maternal mortality rate remained well above that of 12 other developed countries, according to The Commonwealth Fund.

The new CDC data has yet to cover the period following the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade in June 2022. However, other reports have found that U.S. states that have banned or restricted abortion access in the wake of the ruling also have had higher rates of maternal mortality.

A December report from The Commonwealth Fund found that maternal death rates in 2020 were 62 percent higher in states with restrictive abortion policies and were rising twice as fast as those in states without such policies.

Federal actions during the pandemic led to uninsured rates falling to to record lows, especially among Black and Hispanic people, but a new report released by the Commonwealth Fund suggests these improvements are vulnerable to being lost once the COVID-19 public health emergency officially ends in less than two months.

Congress passed the Families First Coronavirus Response Act nearly three years ago exactly, requiring states to keep people on Medicaid continually enrolled throughout the coronavirus public health emergency. The Biden administration announced in January that the emergency declaration is set to end on May 11, which will allow states to begin unwinding the Medicaid expansions.

The Commonwealth Fund's report found that uninsured rates fell across all states in the first two years of the pandemic among Black, Hispanic and White adults, shrinking the disparity in coverage across the groups.

Uninsured rates for Black and Hispanic adults fell by two percentage points or more in 14 and 19 states respectively. A majority of states, however, saw no changes in uninsured rates for Black adults or did not have available data. The report noted that White adults experienced modest improvements in healthcare coverage in nearly all states.

The organization's study cited four reasons for improved coverage: lower than expected declines in employer coverage, expansions under the Affordable Care Act, the mandates issued by the Families First Coronavirus Response Act and the enhanced premium tax credits made available through the American Rescue Plan.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services is requiring states to develop operational plans for unwinding Medicaid expansions and Medicaid has released guidance on a 12-month unwinding period after the public health emergency ends. State Medicaid and Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) agencies will be permitted to begin their unwinding periods one month before the public health emergency ends, the same month it ends or one month after.

"Despite this progress, key health outcomes such as life expectancy and maternal mortality have worsened during the pandemic, particularly for people of color," the report stated. "Achieving full equity in insurance coverage is critical to reversing those trends, particularly since certain COVID-19 treatment and testing benefits are scheduled to sunset when the public health emergency ends in May."

The study authors noted that 11 states have not expanded Medicaid. They advised that Congress create a "federal fallback option for Medicaid-eligible people in these states."

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) estimates that up to 15 million enrollees in Medicaid and CHIP could lose coverage with the end of the public health emergency. About 6.8 million people may lose coverage despite still being eligible.

"Black and Hispanic people are disproportionately enrolled in Medicaid and thus are especially at risk of losing coverage as states begin to redetermine eligibility on April 1, 2023," the Commonwealth Fund report stated.

NEW YORK (AP) — Deaths of pregnant women in the U.S. fell in 2022, dropping significantly from a six-decade high during the pandemic, new data suggests.

More than 1,200 U.S. women died in 2021 during pregnancy or shortly after childbirth, according to a final tally released Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In 2022, there were 733 maternal deaths, according to preliminary agency data, though the final number is likely to be higher.

Officials say the 2022 maternal death rate is on track to get close to pre-pandemic levels. But that's not great: The rate before COVID-19 was the highest it had been in decades.

“From the worst to the near worst? I wouldn’t exactly call that an accomplishment,” said Omari Maynard, a New Yorker whose partner died after childbirth in 2019.

The CDC counts women who die while pregnant, during childbirth and up to 42 days after birth. Excessive bleeding, blood vessel blockages and infections are leading causes.

COVID-19 can be particularly dangerous to pregnant women, and experts believe it was the main reason for the 2021 spike. Burned out physicians may have added to the risk by ignoring pregnant women's worries, some advocates said.

In 2021, there were about 33 maternal deaths for every 100,000 live births. The last time the government recorded a rate that high was 1964.

What happened “isn’t that hard to explain,” said Eugene Declercq, a long-time maternal mortality researcher at Boston University. “The surge was COVID-related.”

Previous government analyses concluded that one quarter of maternal deaths in 2020 and 2021 were COVID-related — meaning that the entire increase in maternal deaths was due to coronavirus infections or the pandemic's wider impact on health care. Pregnant women infected with the coronavirus were nearly 8 times as likely to die as their uninfected peers, according to a recent study published by BMJ Global Health.

The bodies of pregnant women are already under strain, their heart forced to pump harder. Other health problems can make their condition more fragile. And then on top of that, “COVID is going to make all that much worse,” said Dr. Elizabeth Cherot, chief medical and health officer for the March of Dimes.

It didn’t help that vaccination rates among pregnant women were disappointingly low in 2021 — particularly among Black women. Part of that was related to limited vaccine availability, and that the CDC did not fully recommend shots for pregnant women until August 2021.

“Initially there was a lot of mistrust of the vaccine in Black communities,” said Samantha Griffin, who owns a doula service that mainly serves families of color in the Washington, D.C., area.

But there's to more to it than that, she and others added. The 2021 maternal mortality rate for Black women was nearly three times higher than it was for white women. And the maternal death rate for Hispanic American women that year rose 54% compared with 2020, also surpassing the death rate for white moms.

More than a year into the pandemic, a lot of doctors and nurses were feeling burned out and they were getting less in-person time with patients.

Providers at the time "were needing to make snap decisions and maybe not listening to their patients as much,” Griffin said. “Women were saying that they thought something was wrong and they weren't being heard."

Maynard, who is 41 and lives in Brooklyn, said he and his partner experienced that in 2019.

Shamony Gibson, a healthy 30-year-old, was set to have their second child. The pregnancy was smooth until her contractions stopped progressing and she underwent a cesarean section.

The operation was more involved than expected but their son Khari was born in September. A few days later, Shamony began complaining of chest pains and shortness of breath, Maynard said. Doctors told her she just needed to relax and let her body rest from the pregnancy, he said.

More than a week after giving birth, her health worsened and she begged to go to the hospital. Then her heart stopped, and loved ones called for help. The initial focus for paramedics and firefighters was whether Gibson was taking illicit drugs, Maynard said, adding that she didn't.

She was hospitalized and died the next day of a blood clot in the lungs. Her son was 13 days old.

“She wasn’t being heard at all,” said Maynard, an artist who now does speaking engagements as a maternal health advocate.

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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content.