DETROIT (AP) — A judge on Wednesday struck down Michigan’s 1931 anti-abortion law, months after suspending it, the latest development over abortion rights in a state where the issue is being argued in courtrooms and, possibly, at the ballot box. The law, which was long dormant before the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June, violates the Michigan Constitution, said Judge Elizabeth Gleicher. “A law denying safe, routine medical care not only denies women of their ability to control their bodies and their lives — it denies them of their dignity,” Gleicher of the Court of Claims wrote. “Michigan’s Constitution forbids this violation of due process.” The decision comes as the Michigan Supreme Court is considering whether to place a proposed amendment [...]

Hundreds of thousands of newly designed COVID boosters bound for Michigan could significantly tamp down a fall infection surge, according to data modeling. But even with new booster shots revamped to stop the latest variants, there is still plenty of uncertainty: Will people take the boosters? And even if lots of Michiganders roll up their sleeves, could the coronavirus evolve enough to duck even the newly redesigned boosters? “We really don’t know what the properties of a new variant will be. There's a lot of wiggle room in what could happen,” said Marisa Eisenberg, an epidemiologist at the University of Michigan who works on the COVID-19 modeling that the state uses. “A lot hinges on whether or not the booster matches” [...]

The Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday authorized updated versions of Pfizer-BioNTech’s and Moderna’s Covid booster shots that target the highly contagious BA.5 omicron subvariant. The FDA authorized Pfizer’s modified booster for people ages 12 and older; Moderna's shot was authorized for those 18 and up. People who’ve received the two-dose primary series of either vaccine and those who’ve received the initial two doses plus one or two boosters are eligible for the updated shots as long as two months have passed since their last shot, the agency said in a statement. The FDA’s signoff isn’t the last step: The decision will now go to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and its advisory committee to issue their own recommendation on [...]

The Biden administration's fall push for coronavirus boosters will get underway in September, weeks earlier than initially planned, the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) announced on July 29. The strategy is being built around the introduction of reformulated doses, which Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech have vowed to have ready for distribution by then. Scientists hope the bivalent doses, which contain components from the BA.4 and BA.5 variants of the Omicron strain as well as some components from the original version of the virus, will offer greater protection from a possible fall and winter surge as the virus continues to evolve. Decisions on the fall vaccine strategy, including who should be boosted and when, fell to FDA; however, there was plenty [...]

New federal guidance on their obligations when it comes to dispensing reproductive health medications drugs puts pharmacists in a more precarious position instead of clarifying the issue—which was the stated intent of the Biden Administration—according to key pharmacy groups. The National Community Pharmacists Association (NCPA) asserted that pharmacists who are trying to abide by state laws on abortion could be caught in the middle by the guidance issued by the federal Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of Civil Rights (OCR). "States have provided very little clarity on how pharmacists should proceed in light of conflicting state and federal laws and regulations. It is highly unfair for state and federal governments to threaten aggressive action against pharmacists who are just [...]