Health & Safety

'We Have No Choice': A Story Of The Texas Sonogram Law

9:19am January 23, 2013

Journalist Carolyn Jones wrote about her experience with the law for The Texas Observer after having an abortion last year. The state requires that a woman seeking an abortion receive a sonogram at least 24 hours before the procedure.

Queue Listen Now

Patient William Wishart, age 4 months, looks on as Dr. Melanie Walker uses a portable computer to enter information from his exam into an electronic medical records system, in North Raleigh, N.C., in November.

Growing Pains As Doctors' Offices Adopt Electronic Records

8:48pm January 22, 2013

by Eric Whitney

Millions of dollars have been spent to digitize medical records. But doctors are only slowly adopting the the new systems, and many systems won't talk to each other. Some now wonder when the promised benefits in care and cost savings will arrive.

Queue Listen Now

States Become Battlegrounds For Nation's Deep Abortion Divide

8:48pm January 22, 2013

by Kathy Lohr

Forty years after the Supreme Court's Roe v. Wade decision legalized abortion, a growing number of states are passing laws that restrict the procedure. The regulations, while not banning abortions outright, can make it difficult for a woman to obtain one.

Queue Listen Now

Carolyn Cline is the president and CEO of Involved for Life.

Involved For Life: Pregnancy Centers In Texas

4:12pm January 22, 2013

Carolyn Cline, the executive director and CEO of Involved for Life (IFL), a ministry partner of First Baptist Dallas, helps run a pregnancy center that discourages women from getting abortions and offers help during unplanned pregnancies.

Queue Listen Now

Harvest wheat from a field near Wright, Kan. May 10, 2004.

Former Anti-GMO Activist Says Science Changed His Mind

5:29pm January 20, 2013

by NPR Staff

For years, British environmental activist Mark Lynas vandalized genetically modified food crops. Then, he had a change of heart. He went in front of the world to reverse his position, telling the anti-GMO lobby to "get out of the way and let the rest of us get on with feeding the world sustainably."

Queue Listen Now

Each strand of DNA is written in a simple language composed of four letters: A, T, C and G. Your code is unique and could be used to find you.

Health & Safety

Anonymity In Genetic Research Can Be Fleeting

5:12pm January 18, 2013

by Veronique LaCapra

Researchers were able to identify 50 people whose DNA had been posted anonymously on the Internet for genetics studies. The results highlight a trade-off in making genetic data widely available for researchers and protecting personal privacy.

Queue Listen Now

Dementia Takes The Stage In 'The Other Place'

1:03pm January 18, 2013

In the Broadway play The Other Place actress Laurie Metcalf ("Jackie" on the TV show "Roseanne") plays a scientist suffering from the dementia she studies. Playwright Sharr White discusses the play and the challenge of presenting complicated science on a theater stage.

Queue Listen Now

Slides containing DNA sit in a bay waiting to be analyzed by a genome sequencing machine.

It's Legal For Some Insurers To Discriminate Based On Genes

10:48am January 18, 2013

by David Schultz

A 2008 federal law is supposed to protect people from having their genes used against them. But it only applies to health insurance — not, for example, long-term-care insurance. That's exactly the type of insurance people might seek after learning they're genetically predisposed to some medical problem down the road.

Queue Listen Now

Some parents have worried that kids get too many vaccinations too quickly. A review of all the available research suggests those concerns are misplaced.

Schedule Of Childhood Vaccines Declared Safe

7:16am January 18, 2013

by Patti Neighmond

Parents will be reassured to hear there's no evidence linking the current timeline for vaccinations to health problems. A review of all available scientific data looked at a wide range of medical conditions — including diabetes, autism and epilepsy — before declaring that there's no reason to worry.

Queue Listen Now

President Obama signs a series of executive orders Wednesday about the administration's gun law proposals as Vice President Biden and children who wrote letters to the White House about gun violence look on.

Health & Safety

Obama's Plans For Guns Put Focus On Mental Health Of The Young

11:32am January 17, 2013

by Sarah Varney

The president's push to address gun violence and mental health centers largely on training teachers and others who work with children, teens and young adults to recognize illness as it's developing.

Queue Listen Now