AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Texas has sued the Biden administration to try to block a federal rule that shields the medical records of women from criminal investigations if they cross state lines to seek abortion where it is legal. The lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services seeks to overturn a regulation […]

JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — An Alaska judge struck down Wednesday a decades-old state law that restricted who could perform abortions in the state. The decision comes out of a 2019 lawsuit brought by Planned Parenthood Great Northwest, Hawaii, Alaska, Indiana, Kentucky, which challenged the law that says only a doctor licensed by the State Medical […]

Citing free speech rights, a federal judge has temporarily blocked New York’s attorney general from taking enforcement action against certain pregnancy counseling centers for promoting what critics say is an unproven method to reverse medication abortions. U.S. District Judge John Sinatra Jr. in Buffalo issued a preliminary injunction against state Attorney General Letitia James and […]

Since becoming available in 2017, Mifegymiso, commonly called the abortion pill, has transformed reproductive health care in Canada. Before the drug’s legalization, medical abortion was a relatively rare procedure, and surgical abortion services were often only available through hospitals and specialized clinics in major urban centres. Because any physician or nurse practitioner in Alberta can […]

The County of Stettler council agreed to send its concerns about a rural physician shortage across Alberta to a lobby group. The decision was made at the Aug. 14 regular meeting of council. On the “council’s request for information” part of the agenda Coun. Justin Stevens asked his peers to consider approving a formal resolution […]

The abortion pill is slowly changing the reproductive health landscape in Alberta, new data suggests. When Mifegymiso came on the market in Canada in 2017, advocates and medical professionals hoped the medication would expand reproductive health care in rural and remote communities. In the years that followed, however, severe access issues in Alberta persisted and […]

A new Washington state parental rights law derided by critics as a “forced outing” measure will be allowed to take effect this week after a court commissioner on Tuesday declined to issue an emergency order temporarily blocking it. The civil liberties groups, school district, youth services organizations and others who are challenging the law did […]

The Alberta government is facing calls to stop admitting complex mental health patients into long-term care facilities until the risks are fully reviewed. Seniors’ advocates joined Opposition New Democrats at a news conference Monday in asking for the halt. They said mixing residents at Calgary’s Carewest Colonel Belcher facility with those who have vastly different […]

DOVER, Del. (AP) — Delaware’s largest hospital system will pay more than $47 million to settle whistleblower allegations by its former compliance officer that it provided kickbacks to outside doctors in return for patient referrals, resulting in fraudulent Medicaid billing.  The settlement announced Friday comes nearly seven years after Ronald Sherman filed his whistleblower lawsuit, […]

TORONTO — At least 99 hospital patients in Ontario have been placed in long-term care homes without their consent, the province’s auditor general has found. Opposition politicians and seniors’ advocates have roundly criticized a law the Progressive Conservative government enacted last year to enable those moves, which can see those patients placed in homes up to 70 […]

Hospitals must do more to protect patients’ personal data from cyberattacks that can lead to disruptions in care, urges an article published Monday in the Canadian Medical Association Journal. About 16 separate cyberattacks have occurred at health organizations across the country since 2015, but more go unreported, said lead author Vinyas Harish, a medical student at the University of […]

The investigation into the cyber attack that continues to cripple communications at the Chatham-Kent Health Alliance has expanded to an international search. The Federal Bureau of Investigation and Interpol have joined local police and the Ontario Provincial Police to find the culprits and the depth of the ransomware attack on the CKHA and four other regional hospitals. […]