Health News Roundup: Moderna sees higher COVID vaccine sales later this year; Donations to U.S. abortion rights groups, clinics surge after Supreme Court leak and more

The central city of Zhengzhou earlier also announced restrictions, joining dozens of big population centres under some form of lockdown as China seeks to eliminate a virus believed to have first emerged in Wuhan city in late 2019. U.S. eyes emergency contraception grants if top court cuts abortion rights U.S. President Joe Biden's administration was looking at grants to help fund expanding access to emergency contraception as a possible response if the Supreme Court overturns a 1973 decision that legalized abortion nationwide, White House spokesperson Jen Psaki said on Wednesday.

Following is a summary of current health news briefs.

Explainer-Can pill prescriptions overcome U.S. state abortion bans?

If the U.S. Supreme Court reverses its landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade decision guaranteeing abortion rights nationwide, demand for abortion pills, which can be prescribed through online telemedicine visits, will likely rise. Conservative states have already rushed to restrict the practice, and if Roe falls, they will be able to ban it altogether, experts say. WHAT IS A MEDICATION ABORTION?

COVID Americas cases up, N. American cases up for 5th week -PAHO

COVID-19 cases in the Americas increased by 12.7% last week from the prior week, the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) said on Wednesday, as infections continued to rise in Central and North America. The Americas reported more than 616,000 new cases last week, while the death toll was down by less than 1% in the same comparison to 4,200, the organization said.

Rhode Island top court upholds state abortion rights law

Rhode Island's highest court on Wednesday upheld a state law guaranteeing its citizens' right to abortion, just as abortion rights at the national level appear to be in jeopardy. The Rhode Island Supreme Court rejected a lawsuit by several individuals and anti-abortion group Servants of Christ for Life challenging the state's Reproductive Privacy Act. The law, signed in 2019 by then-Governor Gina Raimondo, a Democrat, effectively secures the abortion rights set out in the U.S. Supreme Court's landmark 1973 ruling in Roe v. Wade.

Regeneron's COVID drug sales outside U.S. help revenue beat

Regeneron Pharmaceuticals reported better-than-expected revenue aided by sales from its COVID-19 antibody outside the United States and strong demand for its blockbuster drugs Dupixent and Eylea. About $216 million in first-quarter sales from the intravenous COVID drug through a partnership with Roche, which sells the drug outside the United States under brand name Ronapreve, helped Regeneron limit the setback from no sales in the United States - its biggest market.

Factbox-Abortion in America if Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade

Here's what getting an abortion in America could look like if the U.S. Supreme Court overturns the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion nationwide. The first restrictions would take effect in 13 states with so-called trigger laws https://www.guttmacher.org/state-policy/explore/abortion-policy-absence-roe# to be enacted if the ruling was ever overturned. The states are Arkansas, Idaho, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah and Wyoming, according to the Guttmacher Institute, an abortion rights advocacy research group.

Beijing steps up COVID curbs as virus spreads in China

Beijing shut scores of metro stations and bus routes and extended COVID-19 curbs on many public venues on Wednesday, focusing efforts to avoid the fate of Shanghai, where millions have been under strict lockdown for more than a month. The central city of Zhengzhou earlier also announced restrictions, joining dozens of big population centres under some form of lockdown as China seeks to eliminate a virus believed to have first emerged in Wuhan city in late 2019.

U.S. eyes emergency contraception grants if top court cuts abortion rights

U.S. President Joe Biden's administration was looking at grants to help fund expanding access to emergency contraception as a possible response if the Supreme Court overturns a 1973 decision that legalized abortion nationwide, White House spokesperson Jen Psaki said on Wednesday. "What we have done to date ... where we have seen restrictions ... is created for example the dire need grant awards, which provide funding to expand access to emergency contraception," Psaki told reporters in a press briefing.

Donations to U.S. abortion rights groups, clinics surge after Supreme Court leak

Donations have flooded into abortion clinics and abortion-rights advocacy groups since the leak of a U.S. Supreme Court draft ruling that showed the justices apparently poised to overturn the 1973 landmark Roe v. Wade decision. The draft ruling, which was published by Politico on Monday evening, sparked a frenzy of giving by Americans to abortion clinics, groups that help individuals pay for abortions and organizations seeking to preserve abortion access.

Moderna sees higher COVID vaccine sales later this year

Moderna Inc on Wednesday forecast higher vaccine sales for the second half of the year than in the first six months, as it expects the virus that causes COVID-19 to follow a more seasonal pattern requiring booster shots in the fall. The U.S. vaccine maker is developing a potential next generation booster targeted at both the Omicron variant as well as the original strain of the coronavirus in hopes of producing broader protection.

Abortion-rights protesters rally in U.S., spurred by draft Supreme Court opinion

Protesters rallied under the slogan "off our bodies" in cities across the United States on Tuesday, demanding abortion rights be protected after the leak of a draft Supreme Court opinion that would overturn the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade decision. Thousands of people turned out for an abortion-rights rally in New York City, one of the largest demonstrations as Americans awoke to political and social upheaval, months before voters go to the polls in congressional midterm elections.

(With inputs from agencies.)