A Wyoming judge suspends abortion clinic regulations while a lawsuit proceeds
CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) — Wyoming's only abortion clinic can resume providing surgical abortions after a judge on Monday suspended two state laws.
District Judge Thomas Campbell issued the ruling in a lawsuit filed by Wellspring Health Access and others to challenge the laws. One law requires clinics providing surgical abortions to be licensed as outpatient surgical centers and the other requires women to get an ultrasound before a medication abortion.
Wellspring Health Access stopped providing abortions Feb. 28, the day after Republican Gov. Mark Gordon signed the licensing requirement into law. The clinic has continued to provide hormone replacement therapy for transgender patients.
Gordon vetoed the requirement for an ultrasound at least 48 hours before a pill abortion, calling it onerous in cases of abuse, rape, or when a woman's health is at risk. State lawmakers voted to override the veto March 5.
Opponents call laws like Wyoming's requirements 'targeted restrictions on abortion providers' because they can regulate clinics and abortion access out of existence even if abortion remains legal.
The surgical center licensing requirement would require costly renovations to make Wellspring Health Access compliant, the clinic said in its lawsuit.
The ultrasound requirement did not significantly affect clinic operations but Wellspring Health Access also suspended offering pill abortions to avoid legal complications.
The clinic opened in 2023, almost a year late after heavy damage from an arson attack.
Abortion has remained legal in Wyoming while the same groups and women challenge state abortion bans passed since 2022 that include the first explicit ban on abortion pills in the U.S. Arguments before the state Supreme Court in that case were made April 16 in Cheyenne.
A state district court judge ruled in November that the bans violated the Wyoming Constitution, specifically a 2012 amendment that says competent adults have the right to make their own health care decisions.
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San Francisco Chronicle
an hour ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
Kennedy names 8 vaccine committee replacements, including COVID shot critic
NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Wednesday named eight new vaccine policy advisers to replace the panel that he abruptly dismissed earlier this week. They include a scientist who researched mRNA vaccine technology and became a conservative darling for his criticisms of COVID-19 vaccines, a leading critic of pandemic-era lockdowns, and a professor of operations management. Kennedy's decision to 'retire' the previous 17-member Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices was widely decried by doctors' groups and public health organizations, who feared the advisers would be replaced by a group aligned with Kennedy's desire to reassess — and possibly end — longstanding vaccination recommendations. On Tuesday, before he announced his picks, Kennedy said: 'We're going to bring great people onto the ACIP panel – not anti-vaxxers – bringing people on who are credentialed scientists.' The new appointees include Vicky Pebsworth, a regional director for the National Association of Catholic Nurses, who has been listed as a board member and volunteer director for the National Vaccine Information Center, a group that is widely considered to be a leading source of vaccine misinformation. Another is Dr. Robert Malone, the former mRNA researcher who emerged as a close adviser to Kennedy during the measles outbreak. Malone, who runs a wellness institute and a popular blog, rose to prominence during the COVID-19 pandemic as he relayed conspiracy theories around the outbreak and the vaccines that followed. He has appeared on podcasts and other conservative news outlets where he's promoted unproven and alternative treatments for measles and COVID-19. He has claimed that millions of Americans were hypnotized into taking the COVID-19 shots and has suggested that those vaccines cause a form of AIDS. He's downplayed deaths related to one of the largest measles outbreaks in the U.S. in years. Other appointees include Dr. Martin Kulldorff, a biostatistician and epidemiologist who was a co-author of the Great Barrington Declaration, an October 2020 letter maintaining that pandemic shutdowns were causing irreparable harm. Dr. Cody Meissner, a former ACIP member, also was named. Kennedy made the announcement in a social media post on Wednesday. The committee, created in 1964, makes recommendations to the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. CDC directors almost always approve those recommendations on how vaccines that have been approved by the Food and Drug Administration should be used. The CDC's final recommendations are widely heeded by doctors and guide vaccination programs. The other appointees are: —Dr. James Hibbeln, who formerly headed a National Institutes of Health group focused on nutritional neurosciences and who studies how nutrition affects the brain, including the potential benefits of seafood consumption during pregnancy. —Retsef Levi, a professor of operations management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. —Dr. James Pagano, an emergency medicine physician from Los Angeles. —Dr. Michael Ross, a Virginia-based obstetrician and gynecologist. Of the eight named by Kennedy, perhaps the most experienced in vaccine policy is Meissner, an expert in pediatric infectious diseases at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, who has previously served as a member of both ACIP and the Food and Drug Administration's vaccine advisory panel. During his five-year term as an FDA adviser, the committee was repeatedly asked to review and vote on the safety and effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines that were rapidly developed to fight the pandemic. In September 2021, he joined the majority of panelists who voted against a plan from the Biden administration to offer an extra vaccine dose to all American adults. The panel instead recommended that the extra shot should be limited to seniors and those at higher risk of the disease. Ultimately, the FDA disregarded the panel's recommendation and OK'd an extra vaccine dose for all adults. In addition to serving on government panels, Meissner has helped author policy statements and vaccinations schedules for the American Academy of Pediatrics. ACIP members typically serve in staggered four-year terms, although several appointments were delayed during the Biden administration before positions were filled last year. The voting members all have scientific or clinical expertise in immunization, except for one 'consumer representative' who can bring perspective on community and social facets of vaccine programs. Kennedy, a leading voice in the anti-vaccine movement before becoming the U.S. government's top health official, has accused the committee of being too closely aligned with vaccine manufacturers and of rubber-stamping vaccines. ACIP policies require members to state past collaborations with vaccine companies and to recuse themselves from votes in which they had a conflict of interest, but Kennedy has dismissed those safeguards as weak. Most of the people who best understand vaccines are those who have researched them, which usually requires some degree of collaboration with the companies that develop and sell them, said Jason Schwartz, a Yale University health policy researcher. 'If you are to exclude any reputable, respected vaccine expert who has ever engaged even in a limited way with the vaccine industry, you're likely to have a very small pool of folks to draw from,' Schwartz said. The U.S. Senate confirmed Kennedy in February after he promised he would not change the vaccination schedule. But less than a week later, he vowed to investigate childhood vaccines that prevent measles, polio and other dangerous diseases. Kennedy has ignored some of the recommendations ACIP voted for in April, including the endorsement of a new combination shot that protects against five strains of meningococcal bacteria and the expansion of vaccinations against RSV. In late May, Kennedy disregarded the committee and announced the government would change the recommendation for children and pregnant women to get COVID-19 shots. On Monday, Kennedy ousted all 17 members of the ACIP, saying he would appoint a new group before the next scheduled meeting in late June. The agenda for that meeting has not yet been posted, but a recent federal notice said votes are expected on vaccinations against flu, COVID-19, HPV, RSV and meningococcal bacteria. A HHS spokesman did not respond to a question about whether there would be only eight ACIP members, or whether more will be named later. ___ The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute's Science and Educational Media Group and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
The Hill
an hour ago
- The Hill
Kennedy appoints some vaccine critics to ACIP panel
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Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
In a first for states, Texas might put MAHA warning labels on snack foods
A customer shops for produce at an H-E-B grocery store in Austin, Texas, in February. The Texas legislature recently passed a bill that would require warning labels on foods that contain certain artificial additives and dyes. (Photo by) In a first-of-its-kind effort, the Texas legislature has passed a bill to require warning labels on foods such as Mountain Dew and white bread that contain certain artificial additives and dyes. The measure, now awaiting action by Republican Gov. Greg Abbott, would require a warning label prominently displayed on foods containing any of 44 artificial dyes and additives — a mandate that would apply to popular foods from Doritos and Skittles to Toaster Strudels and breads made with bleached flour. It marks the first time a state, rather than the federal government, has tried to put its own warning labels on food. While the bill passed the Texas House and Senate with bipartisan support, its sponsors are eagerly tying it to U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s 'Make America Healthy Again' movement. State lawmakers embrace RFK Jr.'s health policies 'This is about the MAHA parents and the crunchy granola parents coming together to say we are sick and tired of being sick and tired,' state Rep. Lacey Hull, who partnered with fellow Republican state Sen. Lois Kolkhorst to sponsor the bill, told legislators before the House voted on May 25. 'I have personally spoken to the White House, who said they are looking to us, to Texas, to get this done, to stand for our children and for our future,' Hull said. Abbott has not yet said whether he will sign the bill. It also includes other statewide health mandates, such as expanding physical activity requirements in public schools and setting new nutrition education requirements for high school and higher education students. But the food warning label has drawn the most attention. The label would read: 'WARNING: This product contains an ingredient that is not recommended for human consumption by the appropriate authority in Australia, Canada, the European Union, or the United Kingdom.' This is about the MAHA parents and the crunchy granola parents coming together to say we are sick and tired of being sick and tired. – Texas Republican state Rep. Lacey Hull Critics of food dyes and additives say they are most often found in low-nutrient, ultra-processed foods that promote unhealthy eating habits and contribute to chronic diseases like obesity and diabetes. Some artificial dyes that are permitted by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for use in foods are not recommended by its counterparts in other Western countries. European Union regulators require warning labels on some foods containing synthetic dyes, saying they may have an adverse effect on children's activity and attention. In January, the FDA banned the artificial coloring Red No. 3, which is used in many foods and drinks in the U.S. but has been linked to cancer in animals. California became the first state to ban its use in 2023. That bill was sponsored by a Democrat and goes into effect in 2027. But in Texas, the snack industry is pushing back. A coalition of dozens of food industry and business groups — including Walmart, General Mills and Coca-Cola — wrote a letter in opposition to the Texas bill's warning label provision, saying it 'casts an incredibly wide net' and goes too far. 'Problematic' MAHA report minimizes success of lifesaving asthma medicines, doctors say 'Texans deserve honest labeling; but they also deserve public policy that's been studied, vetted, and evaluated for health considerations as well as economic impacts,' the organizations said in a letter circulated around the Texas legislature ahead of the House vote in May. Yet opposition from some of the country's largest food manufacturers may not be enough to halt the MAHA train. The legislation with the labeling requirement joins other Republican-sponsored bills in the Texas legislature and around the country that reflect Kennedy's MAHA agenda, from ending the addition of fluoride to public waters systems to loosening vaccine restrictions. In March, West Virginia became the first state to pass a sweeping ban on synthetic food dyes. At least two dozen other states considered similar food dye bans in this most recent legislative session, according to data from the Environmental Working Group, a research and advocacy group that pushes for removal of chemicals from food and consumer products. At the federal level, the FDA under Kennedy's direction has also asked the food industry to phase out certain synthetic dyes by the end of 2026, though some of the largest companies have said the timeline may not be feasible. Stateline reporter Anna Claire Vollers can be reached at avollers@ SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
