Regions 'bear the brunt' of abortion access barriers
Laws allowing experienced nurses and midwives to prescribe medicine to induce abortion are set to be passed, with conservative politicians dubbing it a "dangerous and divisive" development.
The amended bill from Greens MP Amanda Cohn aims to overcome "abortion deserts" in NSW.
It comes after revelations a woman was turned away from having an abortion on the day of her planned procedure at Queanbeyan Hospital in August 2024.
Another public hospital in Orange had restricted terminations for non-medical reasons, triggering the intervention of Health Minister Ryan Park to reinstate abortions without restrictions in October 2024.
Abortion was decriminalised in NSW in 2019, but is not always accessible, particularly in rural and regional areas, Dr Cohn says.
A party colleague told parliament on Tuesday the bill was crucial because only three out of 220 public hospitals in the state openly provide abortion services.
"Rural and regional communities disproportionately bear the brunt of this inconsistency, forced to drive for hours to access their right to choose," Greens MP Jenny Leong said.
The amended bill could pass as early as Tuesday evening, with the eventual vote likely to divide the major parties, which have allowed members to vote on their conscience.
Premier Chris Minns said he would back the legislation after the government managed to water down the original bill in the upper house.
Proposed changes to compel conscientious objectors to facilitate the procedures and to lift mandatory reporting for health workers were both scrapped in the final draft.
Opposition Leader Mark Speakman has refused to stake out a public position.
The proposed reforms would require the state to ensure services were available within a "reasonable distance" among other tweaks to the law.
Nurses and midwives with appropriate training would be able to prescribe medical abortions up to nine-weeks gestation.
Liberal MP Rachel Merton said the bill was "dangerous and divisive" for the community, while maverick Libertarian MP John Ruddick opposed it for its "government over-reach".
It has also become a lightning rod for rallies outside parliament, with Sydney Catholic Archbishop Anthony Fisher and social media influencers claiming it forces medical practitioners to perform abortions and shut down private religious hospitals.
Former Liberal prime minister Tony Abbott framed the bill as an attack on an individual's right to act on their moral beliefs.
"This legislation which is about to be rammed through the state parliament is a fundamental assault on freedom of conscience," he told an anti-abortion rally outside parliament last Wednesday.
Meanwhile, upper house MP Chris Rath apologised for invoking Nazis while criticising the bill as "authoritarian".
The state was one of the last in Australia to decriminalise abortion, behind only Western Australia which made the change in March 2024.
The laws will take effect later in May if the bill is successfully passed.
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Yahoo
3 hours ago
- Yahoo
Professor sues University of California for suspension over comments about Israel's war in Gaza
A professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, says the university violated her freedom of speech rights by suspending her for her online comments about Israel's war in Gaza in a new lawsuit. The suit was filed by Rupa Marya, an internal medicine physician and professor at UCSF, identified as an expert in decolonial theory. Marya was placed on leave in September 2024 and had her clinical privileges briefly suspended by the UCSF executive medical board following comments she made on X that questioned the impacts of Zionism as 'a supremacist, racist ideology' on healthcare. Without naming Marya directly, the university subsequently published a statement across its social media accounts that said such comments were a 'tired and racist conspiracy theory' that 'Zionist doctors were a threat to Arab, Palestinian, South Asian, Muslin and Black patients, as well as the US healthcare system' and should be condemned. Related: Ms Rachel says she'll risk career to advocate for children in Gaza Mark Kleiman, an attorney for Marya, said in the court filing that his client was fired last month 'despite requesting a hearing, which she was entitled to', according to NBC News. 'Firing Dr Marya doesn't only violate her right to free speech, it threatens all of us,' he said in a statement to the network. 'We all need to urgently speak up against these kinds of attacks on our basic rights to advocate for justice, and we expect the court will agree with us that Dr Marya's rights have been violated and must be remedied.' According to court documents, Marya's posts 'never impeded the performance of her duties as a physician or faculty member, or the regular operation of the university'. 'As a medical doctor, American citizen and as a person of south Asian descent raised in the Sikh religious tradition, Dr Marya has long been concerned about American foreign policy, including in the Middle East and the issues surrounding the conflict between Israel and Palestine,' the complaint reads. 'Her posts take aim at state policy and supremacist political ideologies, not at any religious or ethnic group.' According to the lawsuit, Marya received 'rape and death threats' as well as 'repeated harassment and threats' because of her posts. She says her posts also expressed 'solidarity with the hospitals and healthcare workers that Israel was attacking in Gaza' and that she 'felt an obligation to speak out and did so using her X account'. In a September 2024 post, Marya wrote on social media that UCSF students were concerned that a first-year student from Israel may have served in the IDF; she asked 'if he participated in the genocide of Palestinians' and asked her colleagues what to do about it. The post drew the attention of state senator Scott Wiener, who posted on X that 'the same UCSF professor who promoted the 'doctors' plot' – an age old antisemitic conspiracy theory that Jewish doctors are harming patients – is now targeting a 1st year med student for harassment b/c he's Israeli. This professor is creating a toxic, hostile environment at UCSF.' UCSF's chancellor, Sam Hawgood, said he took 'immediate action to address this situation,' adding that 'targeting any member of our UCSF community – especially in a way that fosters hostility or discrimination – will not be tolerated', according to a letter obtained by the San Francisco Chronicle. In a March interview with the Guardian, Marya asked: 'How do we integrate [Israeli] reservists into the medical community – with [Palestinian] students who have lost 50 or 60 family members? What is the moral obligation of medicine?' The lawsuit comes as there is ongoing and widespread disagreement across the US about academic freedom on college campuses. Last week, the Trump administration stepped up its efforts to force US universities to crack down on what it deems antisemitic activity. The Department of Education warned New York's Columbia University it could lose accreditation, and thus access to federal grants, over an alleged violation of federal anti-discrimination laws. The Department of Education and the Department of Health and Human Services said last month that it had found that Columbia had acted with 'deliberate indifference' toward the harassment of Jewish students during campus protests. Israel's war in Gaza is estimated to have killed more than 54,000 Palestinians and levelled much of the territory. Last week, the Guardian reported that on Sunday at least 31 Palestinians were killed after Israeli forces opened fire near a food distribution center in Rafah, Gaza. A separate incident at the same site on Monday killed three. International criticism intensified last week over a new aid distribution system in Gaza, run by the Israeli- and US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), and not UN or international aid organisations. The UN's human rights chief, Volker Türk, said that Palestinians in Gaza face an impossible choice: 'Die from starvation or risk being killed while trying to access the meagre food that is being made available.' The attacks on civilians, he added, constituted a war crime. The Guardian has contacted UCSF and Marya's legal team for comment.
CNN
4 hours ago
- CNN
Why men with broken heart syndrome are more likely to die than women
Heart disease Chronic diseasesFacebookTweetLink Follow Get inspired by a weekly roundup on living well, made simple. Sign up for CNN's Life, But Better newsletter for information and tools designed to improve your well-being. A 59-year-old man arrived at the Peking University First Hospital in Beijing for a procedure when he started having severe chest pain and shortness of breath. Four months earlier, he had cancerous tumors removed from his bladder. Around his family, he tried his best to appear strong and avoided discussions of his health. Privately, his severe anxiety over the possibility of a cancer recurrence kept him awake at night. Doctors said the man was experiencing takotsubo cardiomyopathy — also known as broken heart syndrome, as documented in a 2021 case study. The rare stress-induced heart condition has been observed primarily in women, but a study published in the Journal of the American Heart Association in May found that the illness may be more deadly for the men who get it. Thought to be caused by extreme emotional or physical events — such as learning about the death of a loved one, winning the lottery or lifting a heavy sofa — takotsubo cardiomyopathy, or TC, occurs when the heart muscle is flooded with stress hormones, causing part of it to 'freeze' in place. As the heart struggles to properly pump blood, symptoms resemble those of a heart attack, including chest pain, heart palpitations and irregular heartbeat. The new study analyzed data from nearly 200,000 patients hospitalized for TC in the United States between 2016 and 2020. While women accounted for 83% of the cases, men were more than twice as likely to die from the condition — with a mortality rate of 11.2%. 'The differences between men and women are a very striking finding,' said study coauthor Dr. Mohammad Reza Movahed, a clinical professor of medicine at the University of Arizona in Tucson. 'It raises a new, interesting question that should really be studied.' Similar to differences between men's and women's cardiovascular health more generally, the discrepancies in TC death rates are not well understood, Movahed said, especially because they counter trends in other heart diseases. It's widely theorized, however, that differences in hormone levels play a role. Stressful situations trigger the adrenal glands to release our fight-or-flight hormones, called catecholamines. They are meant to increase our blood pressure and raise our heart rate, but extreme levels can temporarily 'stun' cells in the heart's tissue, leading to TC, Movahed explained. Men are thought to produce more catecholamines during stressful situations compared with women, possibly leading men to present with more severe cases of TC, he suggested. Estrogen, a sex hormone produced at higher levels in women, may also have a protective effect on the cardiovascular system, making it easier to manage an extreme influx of catecholamines and reducing the risk of severe complications from TC, said Dr. Louis Vincent, a noninvasive-cardiology research fellow at the University of Miami, who coauthored a similar, multiyear study investigating discrepancies in men and women who had TC. Vincent was not involved in the new study. Beyond biological differences, social factors may play a role as well. 'Most (physicians) know about takotsubo, but they may think of it as a disease just affecting women, so the diagnosis might be overlooked in men,' said Dr. Deepak Bhatt, a cardiologist and the director of Mount Sinai Fuster Heart Hospital who was not involved in the study. 'With misdiagnosis, care is delayed, and that can sometimes lead to worse outcomes.' Men may also seek care at a later stage of illness, believing that their symptoms are manageable or may pass, said Dr. Alejandro Lemor, an assistant professor of interventional cardiology at the University of Mississippi Medical Center who was also not involved in the study. Deadly complications from TC include blood clots, stroke, cardiac arrest and heart failure, Lemor said. If the condition is caught early, medications can reduce the risk of having these complications, restore proper heart function and allow for full recovery within weeks, he added. Movahed's team was able to factor for important variables like age, race, income, chronic lung disease, hypertension and diabetes in the findings. However, there was no patient data on other comorbid diseases, such as a history of stroke or the presence of a Covid-19 infection, Vincent said. Additionally, the new study included in-patient diagnostic data only for those hospitalized with TC, so those who received outpatient care or died later from complications outside the hospital were likely not counted in the analysis, Movahed noted. To establish a firmer explanation for the differences in mortality rates between men and women and further test treatment methods, a more detailed dataset would be needed, Vincent said. 'People should be aware in studies like this, we're presenting findings that are based on diagnostic codes, and we're not looking at patient procedures or lab results,' Vincent said. 'But it's powerful in the sense that it lets us look at large populations and look at trends. And I think that this trend of a higher mortality in men is worth taking a deeper look into.' Sudden, severe chest pain or shortness of breath should always be treated as a medical emergency, warned Bhatt, who is also a professor of cardiovascular medicine at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City. 'It's not a time to tough it out at home or get on the internet to figure it out. … Don't try to track down your primary care provider. Call emergency services,' Bhatt said. 'Time matters. By winning those few hours, you could save yourself irreparable damage to your heart.' Symptoms following physical stressors — a common cause of TC in men — should not be ignored, Movahed said, especially preceding medical events such as asthma attacks, seizures or complications from drug use. And while TC is caused by sudden stress, Bhatt said that managing chronic stress with daily meditation or exercise can lead to better cardiovascular health overall while giving you routines to fall back on in unexpected situations.
Washington Post
4 hours ago
- Washington Post
Will you be able to get a COVID-19 shot? Here's what we know so far
Want a COVID-19 vaccination this fall? For many Americans, it's not clear how easy it will be to get one — and some doctors already see signs of trouble. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who was a longtime anti-vaccine activist, said last month that the shots are no longer recommended for healthy children and pregnant women, usurping a decision normally made by scientific experts, not political appointees . Days later, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said healthy children and pregnant women 'may' get COVID-19 vaccinations, removing stronger language that those groups 'should' get the shots. Its website currently lists no advice for pregnant women — graying out that section of the vaccine guidance chart. The change follows an earlier Trump administration step to limit COVID-19 vaccinations among healthy people under age 65. Until now, the U.S. — following guidance from independent experts who advise the CDC — has recommended yearly COVID-19 vaccinations for everyone age 6 months and older. Together, the moves have left health experts, vaccine makers and insurers uncertain about what to advise and what comes next. In Seattle, University of Washington infectious disease expert Dr. John B. Lynch said he recently advised a fellow health care worker who's pregnant to get vaccinated. She agreed, only to be turned away by two pharmacies. 'That's the practical implication,' Lynch told reporters in an Infectious Diseases Society of America briefing. 'We see confusion play out. We see chaos play out. And we see barriers to access.' The conflicting statements are also leaving primary care doctors uncertain of how to advise patients, Lynch added. 'I'm not sure when that confusion is going to be abated,' he said. Some of this season's vaccine is still available. Insurance industry experts say if people had coverage before Kennedy's announcement, insurance likely would still pay for the shots. In a move that could help access, Wisconsin's health department announced that state 'continues to recommend the current COVID-19 vaccine during pregnancy and for every person 6 months and older,' and reiterating the its state Medicaid program will continue to cover it. Who will be able to get what vaccines this fall is still unclear. Vaccine manufacturers plan to issue updated COVID-19 shots in the late summer or fall. But the Food and Drug Administration has said it plans to limit approval of seasonal shots to seniors and others at high risk, pending more studies of everyone else. Even if the U.S. approves vaccines only for certain groups, it still may be possible for others to get the shot depending on the outcome of upcoming advisory meetings, regulatory moves and decisions from insurers and employers. Insurers base coverage decisions on the recommendations of that CDC panel, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices. It's not clear what role that panel now will play. Paying out of pocket could cost about $200. The CDC says its new language for healthy kids — known as shared decision-making — means health insurers must pay for the vaccinations. Some insurers and employers may decide to still cover the shots no matter what, said Jen Kates, a senior vice president at the non-profit KFF, which studies health care issues. She noted that they may view the expense as worthwhile if it avoids a higher bill from someone hospitalized by the coronavirus. The FDA published a list of health conditions it said would qualify, including asthma, cancer, diabetes, obesity and physical inactivity. The CDC has a more extensive list. But, again, it isn't yet known how this will play out. For example, it could be hard for people to prove they're qualified. If they're vaccinated at a drugstore, for instance, the pharmacist wouldn't normally know about underlying health problems or even ask. And Ajay Sethi, an epidemiologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said 'this elephant in the room' is that blocking vaccination to the healthy may mean people who have a risk factor and simply don't know it will miss out. Adding to the confusion was Kennedy's implication that the coronavirus isn't dangerous to pregnant women. COVID-19 complications during pregnancy can include preterm birth as well as serious illness in the mother, and the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine said it 'strongly reaffirms' its recommendation for vaccination during pregnancy. Moreover, vaccinating mom can provide spillover protection for the newborn for a few months, until he or she is old enough for their own vaccination, Lynch stressed. ___ Associated Press writer Mike Stobbe contributed to this report. ___ 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.
