Health & Safety

A small but pivotal group of Tennessee representatives voted Tuesday to discontinue one of the state's most divisive criminal laws. Known as "fetal assault," the measure empowered prosecutors to arrest women who abuse heroin or pain pills during pregnancy, if their babies were born dependent.

Issued two years after the first case was confirmed in West Africa, an International Rescue Committee report on lessons from the epidemic stresses the critical role of politics.

"Clearly, what happened here is a case of environmental injustice," task force member Ken Sikkema tells reporters. Primary blame rests with a state environmental agency, investigators concluded.

Seconal used to cost less than $200 a bottle. After Valeant Pharmaceuticals bought the medication, the cost rose to $3,000. Advocates for aid in dying say that's a burden for the terminally ill.

There's plenty of evidence that being transgender makes for worse mental health. But would that change if trans people were accepted by their families early on? Scientists are trying to find out.

For the fourth time in five years, the justices consider a requirement of the Affordable Care Act that most health plans provide women access to birth control without copays.

The program was tested in YMCAs around the country, and helped people lose about 5 percent of their body weight in a year. The goal is to make it a Medicare-eligible prevention program.

It's a spring religious festival in India. People spatter each other with colored powder and spray lots of water. This year's drought is changing the tradition — to the dismay of many.

Almost twice as many people as expected have signed up for Medicaid, and it has saved Montana $3 million so far, according to a progress report. But the program still has critics.