Kaiser Health News: A Crisis With Little Data: States Begin To Count Drug-Dependent Babies
WITF's Ben Allen, in partnership with Kaiser Health News and NPR, reports: "How do fix a problem if you don't know its size? Many states — including some that have been hardest hit by the opioid crisis — don't know how many of their youngest residents each year are born physically dependent on those drugs. ... To make good decisions, health officials need basic information: Which infants are affected? How many, where, and why?" (Allen, 3/31)

The New York Times: Donald Trump, Abortion Foe, Eyes ‘Punishment’ For Women, Then Recants
Donald J. Trump said on Wednesday that women who seek abortions should be subject to “some form of punishment” if the procedure is banned in the United States, further elevating Republican concerns that his explosive remarks about women could doom the party in the fall. The comment, which Mr. Trump later recanted, attracted instant, bipartisan criticism — the latest in a series of high-profile episodes that have shined a light on Mr. Trump’s feeble approval ratings among women nationally. (Flegenheimer and Haberman, 3/30)

The Associated Press: Under Fire On Abortion, Trump Fights To Court Women
Donald Trump is fighting to convince a skeptical Republican Party he can improve his standing among women, even as he takes back an explosive comment about abortion and attacks the credibility of a female reporter police say was illegally grabbed by the GOP front-runner's campaign manager. It took Trump's campaign just hours to backtrack on Wednesday after he said that should abortion become illegal, women who undergo the procedure should face "some sort of punishment." The plan sparked an immediate backlash from both sides of the debate, prompting Trump to release two statements clarifying his position. His second statement said only those who perform abortions would be "held legally responsible, not the woman." "The woman is a victim in this case as is the life in her womb," Trump said. (3/31)

The Wall Street Journal: Donald Trump’s Abortion Comments Spark Furor From Both Sides
Mr. Trump also said the men who impregnate women who get abortions shouldn’t be punished: “Is he responsible under the law for these abortions? Or is he not responsible for an abortion decision?” Mr. Matthews asked about what Mr. Trump believed such a law should cover. “Different feelings. Different people. I would say no,” Mr. Trump replied. His comments were part of a MSNBC program scheduled for broadcast later Wednesday. (Ballhaus and Reinhard, 3/30)

Reuters: Trump Sounds Off On Abortion; Criticism Comes From All Sides
Trump has won support from Republican voters for selling himself as a Washington outsider. But the New York real estate tycoon, who once supported abortion access, has come under pressure from conservatives to prove he is truly one of them. At the same time, he has drawn criticism for comments that offended women and minority groups. "Of course, women shouldn't be punished," rival Republican candidate John Kasich said on Wednesday, saying he opposed abortion except in specific cases such as rape. U.S. Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, the third candidate for the Republican nomination for the Nov. 8 election, said Trump had not thought through the issue. "What's far too often neglected is that being pro-life is not simply about the unborn child, it's also about the mother," he said in a statement. (Stephenson, 3/30)

USA Today: Trump Abortion Comments Spark Outrage On Both Sides
“Mr. Trump’s comment today is completely out of touch with the pro-life movement and even more with women who have chosen such a sad thing as abortion,” said Jeanne Mancini, president of the March for Life Education and Defense Fund. “No pro-lifer would ever want to punish a woman who has chosen abortion. This is against the very nature of what we are about. We invite a woman who has gone down this route to consider paths to healing, not punishment.'' Ken Blackwell, senior fellow at the Family Research Council, said Trump's comments underscored the candidate's "lack of any in-depth of involvement with the pro-life movement.'' (Hafner and Johnson, 3/30)

The Washington Post: Trump: If Abortions Are Banned, Women Who Seek Them Should Face ‘Punishment’
Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton, who is poised to become the first female presidential nominee of a major party, responded immediately via social media. “Just when you thought it couldn't get worse. Horrific and telling,” Clinton wrote on Twitter. Women’s groups were quick to weigh in as well, including Planned Parenthood Action and Emily’s List, both of which called Trump "dangerous" and blasted his comments. (DelReal, 3/30)

Politico: Trump Reverses Statement That Women Should Be Punished For Illegal Abortions
The anti-abortion movement in recent decades has tried to avoid the perception that it is “punishing” women for having abortions. Instead, it has focused on penalties for the physicians who provide them, such as imposing medical or legal restrictions on their practice. In some rare situations, women have faced charges associated with abortions they have attempted on their own. (McCaskill and Haberkorn, 3/30)

The Washington Post's Fact Checker: Donald Trump’s Claim He Evolved Into ‘Pro-Life’ Views, Like Ronald Reagan
Ahead of the April 5 Wisconsin primary, Trump is facing more questions about his policy views on gender and women’s issues — particularly, his views on abortion. Trump often compares his self-described evolution from being a Democrat to Republican to Ronald Reagan, who was once a Democrat before becoming the Republican icon. And now, he suggests that his evolution from supporting abortion rights to vocally opposing it is like Reagan’s, who once passed a law in favor of women’s access to abortion. Reagan did sign a law in 1967 that liberalized abortions — six years before the Supreme Court’s decision on Roe v. Wade. But this was long before abortion was a national social policy matter, before there were such terms like “pro-choice” and “pro-life.” (Lee, 3/31)

The New York Times: New F.D.A. Guidelines Ease Access To Abortion Pill
The Food and Drug Administration has relaxed the guidelines for taking a pill that induces abortion, reviving one of the most contentious issues of the abortion debate. The change allows women to use the drug further into pregnancy and with fewer visits to the doctor. The announcement on Wednesday came unexpectedly in the final stretch of the Obama administration and amid an election campaign in which both parties covet the women’s vote. Some abortion opponents charged that the new regimen was politically motivated. The F.D.A. said its actions were based strictly on medical science. (Tavernise, 3/30)

The Associated Press: FDA: Women Can Take Abortion Pill Later; Pare Clinic Visits
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) notified the manufacturer of the drug Mifeprex in a letter on Tuesday that the drug is safe and effective for terminating a pregnancy in accordance with the new label. Also known as mifepristone or the abortion pill, the drug manufactured by Danco Laboratories is used in combination with another drug, misoprostol, to end a pregnancy. While abortion providers in most states already are using the protocol outlined in the new label, laws in effect in Ohio, North Dakota and Texas prohibited "off-label" uses of the drug and mandated abortion providers adhere to the older protocol approved in 2000. (3/30)

USA Today: FDA Expands Abortion-Pill Access In States Seeking Limits
The new rules allow women to use the medication for 70 days after the start of their most recent menstrual period, up from 49 days under the previous guidelines. The agency also lowered the dosage of the medication, called mifepristone, from 600 milligrams to 200 milligrams, and made it easier for women to get a prescription for the pill. (Gomez, 3/30)

The Washington Post: The FDA Just Made The Abortion Pill Easier To Get
In practice, the situation will not change for most of those seeking abortions, as doctors for years have been diverging from the old FDA protocol on the basis of new research — a common practice known as prescribing a drug “off-label.” But a handful of states have laws requiring abortion providers to adhere at least in part to the FDA-approved label, leading some providers to all but abandon the use of the abortion pill. (Somashekhar and McGinley, 3/30)

Politico: New Abortion Protocol Could Thwart Anti-Abortion Laws
Health care providers have used the protocol approved Wednesday for years because scientific evidence showed it to be safe and effective. But in at least three states — Texas, Ohio and North Dakota — anti-abortion laws required health care providers to use only FDA-approved processes. In those states, medication abortions could be nearly impossible to obtain because of the added expense and doctor visits required. Typically, providers in the three states recommended more invasive surgical abortions, even when a woman was not far along into a pregnancy. Three other states — Arizona, Arkansas and Oklahoma — had passed similarly strict laws that were enjoined by the courts prior to the FDA announcement. (Haberkorn, 3/30)

The Wall Street Journal: New FDA Guidelines Ease Access To Abortion Drug
A quarter of abortions are drug-induced, according to an estimate by George Washington University’s Jacobs Institute of Women’s Health. The method involves taking pills under an abortion provider’s supervision and is less invasive than surgery. As its use has grown, abortion-rights supporters and opponents have more closely focused public policy on the method. ... In the past, the FDA recommendations included a 49-day window for a woman to access the initial dose of mifepristone after her last menstrual period, followed by a dose of misoprostol, another abortion-inducing drug. (Radnofsky and Burton, 3/30)

The New York Times: House Panel Issues Subpoenas In Fetal Tissue Research Inquiry
A special House committee empaneled to investigate fetal tissue research issued subpoenas on Wednesday to eight medical organizations as part of an investigation that has led to charges of intimidation. “The Select Investigative Panel is working in a thoughtful and thorough manner to find the facts about what exactly is going on at these abortion businesses and procurement organizations,” said Representative Marsha Blackburn, a Republican from Tennessee who leads the House Select Investigative Panel on Infant Lives. “Unfortunately, some of these organizations have so redacted documents — even after being subpoenaed — that it is impossible for us to get the complete picture of what is actually going on.” (Harris, 3/30)

The Associated Press: House Panel In Fetal Tissue Probe Issues More Subpoenas
The panel headed by Rep. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., said Wednesday that targets of the subpoenas include StemExpress, a company that provides fetal tissue to researchers; Ganogen Inc., a biotechnology firm and the BioMedical Research Institute of America, which helps set standards for the work. The committee said "individuals with relationships to the University of New Mexico," which conducts fetal tissue research, were also subpoenaed. Some subpoenas' targets were hidden in documents the panel provided. "There should be no resistance to letting all the facts come out," Blackburn said in a statement justifying her committee's action. (3/30)

The New York Times: The 1095 Tax Form For Health Care Coverage: What You Need To Know
Millions of Americans who have health coverage through a big employer are receiving a new, unfamiliar tax form in the mail this year, thanks to the Affordable Care Act: the 1095-C. Most tax filers do not need to do much with it, except file it away with their tax records. But because it is new, the form is causing a bit of confusion, said Victor Saliterman, vice president and general manager for health care reform at the benefits and payroll administrator ADP. This is the first time in decades that a major new employee tax form has been widely distributed, Mr. Saliterman said, and many workers do not know what to do with it when it arrives. (Carrns, 3/30)

Reuters: Decline In Financial Settlements With U.S. Big Pharma: Report
The amount of money big U.S. pharmaceutical manufacturers have paid to settle charges for violating federal health care laws has declined sharply in recent years, prompting a non-profit watchdog group to call for an increase in enforcement efforts. In a new analysis that chronicles 25 years worth of pharmaceutical industry settlements and court judgments, the group, known as Public Citizen, found that just $2.4 billion in federal financial penalties were recovered from 2014 to 2015 - a figure that is less than one third of the $8.7 billion recovered from 2012 to 2013. (Lynch, 3/31)

The Wall Street Journal: FTC Seeks More Information On Pfizer-Allergan Merger
Pfizer Inc. and Allergan PLC on Wednesday said federal regulators are seeking more information on their pending merger deal, a so-called inversion that would create the world’s biggest drugmaker and move one of the top names in corporate America to a foreign country. The request from the Federal Trade Commission was “fully anticipated as part of the regulatory process,” the companies said. They still expect the deal to close in the second of this year. (Steele, 3/30)

The Wall Street Journal: Valeant Asks Its Lenders For Some Slack
Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc. said Wednesday it was seeking more room from lenders to stave off a potential default. But stock investors were unnerved, as Valeant inched back from earlier assurances about its ability to hit financial targets required by its lenders. The Canadian drug company, struggling in recent months with questions over its accounting and business practices, said it had begun seeking a deal with lenders to give it more time to file its delayed 10-K annual report. Valeant also said it was seeking “additional cushion” from lenders on some terms of its debt. (Rapoport and McNish, 3/30)

The Wall Street Journal: Drugmaker Led By Ex-CEOs Of Pfizer, Celgene Buys Three Painkillers
Pain treatment maker Centrexion Therapeutics, founded by former chief executives at Pfizer Inc. and Celgen Corp., agreed to acquire three new painkilling candidates from Germany’s Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH in a bid to expand its proprietary pipeline. Financial terms weren’t disclosed in the deal for nonopioid and nonsurgical chronic pain treatments. (Steele, 3/30)

The Associated Press: Hospital Cyberattack Highlights Health Care Vulnerabilities
A cyberattack that paralyzed the hospital chain MedStar this week is serving as a fresh reminder of vulnerabilities that exist in systems that protect sensitive patient information. That attack came a month after a Los Angeles hospital paid hackers $17,000 to regain control of its computer system and more than a year after intruders broke into a database containing the records of nearly 80 million people maintained by the health insurer Anthem. (3/30)

The Washington Post: Possible ‘Ransomware’ Attack Still Crippling Some MedStar Hospitals’ Computers
Hospitals throughout MedStar Health’s network continued to face problems with their online systems Wednesday, two days after a cyberattack crippled the health-care giant’s email and patient records databases. “Our electronic medical records system is working,” spokeswoman Ann Nickels said. “Individual work stations may not be working.” MedStar also issued a statement Wednesday saying that “the three main clinical information systems supporting patient care are moving to full restoration, and enhanced functionality continues to be added to other systems.” (Cox, 3/30)

The Associated Press: Hopkins Begins Nation’s First HIV-Positive Organ Transplants
Surgeons in Baltimore for the first time have transplanted organs between an HIV-positive donor and HIV-positive recipients, a long-awaited new option for patients with the AIDS virus whose kidneys or livers also are failing. Johns Hopkins University announced Wednesday that both recipients are recovering well after one received a kidney and the other a liver from a deceased donor — organs that ordinarily would have been thrown away because of the HIV infection. (Neergaard, 3/30)

NPR: New Source Of Transplant Organs For Patients With HIV: Others With HIV
When a Connecticut woman who was HIV-positive died earlier this month, her family decided to donate her organs to others who needed them. Doctors in Maryland announced Wednesday that they performed two landmark, successful surgeries with her kidney and liver — transplanting the organs to HIV-positive patients. This is a big deal, because there continues to be an overall shortage of organs available for transplant, and people living with HIV have an increased risk of kidney and liver failure. (Bichell, 3/31)

NPR: Study: Prolonged Antibiotic Treatment Gave No Relief For Lasting Lyme Symptoms
For some people with Lyme disease, the illness seems to take a lasting toll. Years after a standard two-week course of antibiotics against Borrellia burgdorferi or closely related organisms that cause the disease, these patients remain exhausted and foggy-headed. They suffer from chronic aches and pains and poor sleep. In the last decade and a half, medical societies and some patient groups have fought over how to treat these people and also over the reasons why they don't get better. (Chen, 3/30)

NPR: Possible Heart Benefits Of Taking Estrogen Get Another Look
In the 1980s and '90s, many doctors told women going through menopause that they should take female hormones — estrogen and progestin — to alleviate symptoms like hot flashes and sleep problems. The hormone therapy was thought to have other benefits, too, like preventing broken bones, colon cancer and heart attacks. But in 2002, a bombshell hit. The Women's Health Initiative, a long-term health study with thousands of participants, showed that not only did the hormone therapy not ease those serious health problems but likely did some harm — putting women at a higher risk of heart disease, stroke and breast cancer. (Bichell, 3/30)

The Associated Press: FBI: Hospice Nurses Told To Overdose Patients To Speed Death
An FBI affidavit alleges the owner of a Dallas-area hospice ordered nurses to increase drug dosages for patients to speed their deaths and maximize profits. A copy of an affidavit for a search warrant obtained by KXAS-TV alleges Brad Harris ordered higher dosages for at least four patients at Novus Health Services in Frisco. It’s unclear whether any deaths resulted from overdoses. Harris has not been charged and the FBI on Wednesday declined to say whether an investigation is ongoing. (3/30)