Health & Safety

The iconic cherry blossoms in Washington, D.C., reached their peak bloom on March 28 this season, earlier than most years. Mild winters lead to a longer pollen season and that is bad news for allergy sufferers.

Health & Safety

More pollen, more allergies: Exposure therapy in several forms treats symptoms

7:27am April 08, 2023

by Allison Aubrey

Some doctors prescribe sublingual immunotherapy, known as SLIT, a serum taken as drops under the tongue. Patients like it, but it is not FDA-approved, so insurance usually doesn't cover it.

Mifepristone is part of a two-drug protocol that a recent study showed was used in 98% of medication abortions in 2020.

Judges' dueling decisions put access to a key abortion drug in jeopardy nationwide

7:07am April 08, 2023

by Sarah McCammon

A federal judge in Texas stayed the FDA's approval of the drug mifepristone, while a federal judge in Washington state blocked any FDA change in access.

Queue Listen Now

Months of a doomed pregnancy: What can happen in a state with strict abortion laws

5:24pm April 07, 2023

by Selena Simmons-Duffin

When she gave birth to her baby with a fatal condition two months early, Samantha Casiano scrambled to raise funds for the funeral. Anti-abortion advocates say Texas laws are "working as designed."

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The World Health Organization turns 75

5:13am April 07, 2023

by Ari Daniel

The World Health Organization turns 75 today. Forged in the years following World War II, many hoped people would finally work together to eradicate some of the world's worst diseases.

Wellspring Health Access clinic was set to open in June 2022 in Casper, Wyo., when it was damaged by arson in late May, 2022. If it opens this year, the women's health and abortion clinic would be the only one of its kind in the state.

Clinics offering abortions face a rise in threats, violence and legal battles

5:00am April 07, 2023

by Aaron Bolton

Since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, medical providers are encountering more legal and political battles — and escalating threats from the anti-abortion movement.

Samantha Casiano and Luis Villasana and had a baby last week who died shortly after birth. The fatal condition was diagnosed at 20 weeks of pregnancy. When Casiano asked her OB-GYN what her options were, she was told, "You don't have any options. You have to go on with your pregnancy."

Health & Safety

A Good Friday funeral in Texas. Baby Halo's parents had few choices in post-Roe Texas

5:09pm April 06, 2023

by Selena Simmons-Duffin

When she gave birth to her baby with a fatal condition two months early, Samantha Casiano scrambled to raise funds for the funeral. Anti-abortion advocates say Texas laws are "working as designed."

The Wisconsin Supreme Court election has given hope to the state's medical community

4:57pm April 06, 2023

NPR's Mary Louise Kelly asks OB-GYN Kristin Lyerly what doctors and patients in Wisconsin have been dealing with before the Supreme Court election — and how it affects abortion in the region.

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The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has pulled its approval for an unproven drug intended to prevent premature births.

Health & Safety

FDA pulls the only approved drug for preventing premature birth off the market

2:55pm April 06, 2023

The drug had been fast-tracked for approval under the agency's accelerated approval program, and has been available for more than a decade, despite the drugmaker's failure to prove that it works.

The World Health Organization led this measles vaccination campaign in India in 1974 — reflecting its mission "to promote and protect the health of all peoples."

8 bold agenda items for the World Health Organization as it turns 75

12:26pm April 06, 2023

by Ari Daniel

Pay more attention to teens, ethics, the planet, long COVID and more. NPR asks public health leaders what this U.N.-created agency should add to its docket in this anniversary year.

Emissions from a coal-fired power plant are silhouetted against the setting sun in Kansas City, Mo., on Feb. 1, 2021. The Environmental Protection Agency is tightening rules that limit emissions of mercury and other harmful pollutants from coal-fired power plants, updating standards imposed more than a decade ago.

The EPA proposes tighter limits on toxic emissions from coal-fired power plants

5:48pm April 05, 2023

by The Associated Press

The rules would lower emissions of mercury and other toxic pollutants that can harm brain development of young children and contribute to heart attacks and other health problems in adults.