TALLAHASSEE — The Florida Agency for Health Care Administration on Friday denied a license for a new Pensacola abortion clinic, rejecting a recommendation by an administrative law judge who said the application should be approved.
Agency Secretary Jason Weida signed a 49-page final order that cited a “pattern of deficient performance” at a now-closed Louisiana clinic with ties to the proposed Pensacola facility.
Administrative Law Judge Yolonda Green on Aug. 28 recommended that a license should be issued to July Medical Services, LLC, which applied in March 2023 to operate a clinic that would...
TALLAHASSEE — The Florida Department of Health is sending notices out to people whose personal and health information was stolen by hackers and released on the dark web last month.
Floridians are being notified by mail if they were a victim of the cyberattack, and the state is offering them free credit monitoring and identity theft protection services, the department wrote in a public notice Wednesday.
In June, the international hacker group RansomHub stole at least 20,000 department files that included some Floridians’ most sensitive information: HIV test results, signed medical release forms,...
By MICHAEL PHILLIS
ST. LOUIS (AP) — For the first time in roughly 40 years, the Environmental Protection Agency used its emergency authority to halt the sale of a weed-killing pesticide that harms the development of unborn babies.
Officials took the rare step because the pesticide DCPA, or Dacthal, could cause irreversible damage to fetuses, including impaired brain development and low birthweight. The agency struggled to obtain vital health data from the pesticide’s manufacturer on time and decided it was not safe to allow continued sale, EPA said in an announcement Tuesday.
“In this case,...
By JONEL ALECCIA
The popular deli meat company Boar’s Head is recalling an additional 7 million pounds of ready-to-eat products made at a Virginia plant as an investigation into a deadly outbreak of listeria food poisoning continues, U.S. Agriculture Department officials said Tuesday.
The new recall includes 71 products made between May 10 and July 29 under the Boar’s Head and Old Country brand names. It follows an earlier recall of more than 200,000 pounds of sliced deli poultry and meat. The new items include meat intended to be sliced at delis as well as some packaged meat and poultry products...
On Tuesday, the reality of Florida’s new six-week abortion ban hit the radar of pregnant women seeking care.
At a Planned Parenthood clinic in West Palm Beach, doctors scrambled to provide abortions for anyone pregnant beyond six weeks. Women crowded into a waiting room, returning for a pill or surgical procedure. The men who brought them paced the parking lot or sat in cars watching for the women to emerge.
Yet, even with the scramble, the clinic turned some women away, a glimpse into the future of reproductive care in Florida.
A recent Florida Supreme Court ruling paved the way for the Sunshine...
The drive to Bristol, Virginia, from Jacksonville, Florida, takes more than eight hours. It’s over 10 from Orlando and closer to 14 from Miami. Despite that distance, Bristol Women’s Health Center is preparing for an influx of women from Florida seeking abortions when a stricter ban kicks in next month.
For many people who otherwise would have obtained abortions in Florida, the clinic in southwest Virginia will become the closest practical option — as it already is for a swath of the South after a Florida policy change expected to resonate far beyond the state’s borders.
“The majority of the...
By LAURAN NEERGAARD (AP Medical Writer)
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. regulators on Monday approved the first RSV vaccine for pregnant women so their babies will be born with protection against the scary respiratory infection.
RSV is notorious for filling hospitals with wheezing babies every fall and winter. The Food and Drug Administration cleared Pfizer’s maternal vaccination to guard against a severe case of RSV when babies are most vulnerable — from birth through 6 months of age.
The next step: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention must issue recommendations for using the vaccine, named...
By HANNAH SCHOENBAUM (Associated Press/Report for America)
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Transgender youth in North Carolina lost access Wednesday to gender-affirming treatments after the Republican-led General Assembly overrode the Democratic governor’s vetoes of that legislation and other bills touching on gender in sports and LGBTQ+ instruction in the classroom.
GOP supermajorities in the House and Senate enacted — over Gov. Roy Cooper’s veto — a bill barring medical professionals from providing hormone therapy, puberty-blocking drugs and surgical gender-transition procedures to anyone under 18, with...
By ROB GILLIES (Associated Press)
TORONTO (AP) — Canada will soon become the first country in the world where warning labels must appear on individual cigarettes.
The move was first announced last year by Health Canada and is aimed at helping people quit the habit. The regulations take effect Aug. 1 and will be phased in. King-size cigarettes will be the first to feature the warnings and will be sold in stores by the end of July 2024, followed by regular-size cigarettes, and little cigars with tipping paper and tubes by the end of April 2025.
“This bold step will make health warning messages...