 | | | | Arizona's Republican Governor Doug Ducey on Wednesday signed a bill banning abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy, a restriction the U.S. Supreme Court could soon declare to be constitutional when it finishes reviewing a similar Mississippi ban this spring. | | | | | | Much of Canada is facing a fresh COVID-19 wave just as authorities ease measures meant to curb the spread of the virus, emboldened by a brief drop in cases and relatively high vaccination rates. | | | | | | The U.S. Justice Department on Wednesday announced it has criminally charged nine anti-abortion activists, after they allegedly conspired in 2020 to storm a Washington, D.C.-based reproductive health clinic and set up a blockade to intimidate patients and staff. | | | | | | The World Health Organization on Wednesday released an updated plan for COVID-19, laying out key strategies that, if implemented in 2022, would allow the world to end the emergency phase of the pandemic. | | | | | | The probe first came to light in late 2020 and had been quiet until recent months when investigators again began making inquiries, the sources said. | | | | | | The U.S. health regulator has declined to approve Akebia Therapeutics' drug to treat anemia caused by chronic kidney disease on safety concerns in non-dialysis patients, the company said on Wednesday. | | | | | | Planned Parenthood on Wednesday asked Idaho's top court to declare that a recently enacted six-week abortion ban modeled on a Texas law that empowers private citizens to sue abortion providers is unconstitutional. | | | | | | There has been no agreement on the terms of a COVID-19 vaccine intellectual property waiver among four key World Trade Organization members, U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai said on Wednesday, casting doubt over the effort's future. | | | | | | Maryland lawmakers have passed a bill to increase and protect abortion access in the state, a proactive move as the U.S. Supreme Court weighs whether to overturn or weaken constitutional abortion rights this spring. | | | | | | Drugstore chains Walgreens Boots Alliance and Rite Aid said on Wednesday they would start offering second booster doses of mRNA COVID-19 vaccines, after the shots were cleared in the United States. | | | | | |
