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The Senate Armed Services Committee rejected a provision in the annual defense policy bill that would have expanded coverage of fertility services for military members and their families, including in vitro fertilization (IVF), according to Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.). “All my provision seeks to do is provide our troops with the same access to IVF that all Members of Congress already have. After everything our troops sacrifice for our nation, they should never have to sacrifice their dreams of building a family,” Duckworth, who was the sponsor of the provision, said in a statement. (Weixel, 6/11)

New data released Thursday suggest the prevalence of drinking during pregnancy increased in recent years. National survey data published in a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report show about 15% of adult pregnant women reported current drinking (use in the prior 30 days) between 2021 and 2024. About 13.5% of women reported the same between 2018 and 2020. (Cueto, 6/11)

Planned Parenthood’s Northwest affiliate is suing Alaska to challenge the state’s ban on telehealth abortion. In a lawsuit filed Thursday in Alaska state court, Planned Parenthood Great Northwest, Hawaii, Alaska, Indiana, Kentucky said the state’s requirement that patients seeking medication abortion must be seen in person violates Alaskans’ constitutional right to abortion. The organization is seeking a preliminary injunction to put the ban on hold while the lawsuit is agued. (Weixel, 6/11)

When scientists at Columbia University announced they had used a newer technology to precisely edit the genes of human embryos last week, they set the academic community ablaze with debate. Is this good news or bad? How fast will this move? And more philosophically: Where does medicine end and eugenics begin? The results of the new study, first reported by The New York Times, showed that a technique called base editing meticulously swapped out individual letters in an embryo’s genome, altering genes linked to fetal hemoglobin production, cholesterol levels and the risk of heart disease. (Baumgaertner Nunn, 6/11)

For more than a decade, Dr. Joseph Mercola cautioned parents against a potentially lifesaving shot of vitamin K for their newborn babies: “Vitamin K shots are completely unnecessary for your newborn.” But now, in a break from his past warnings, Mercola is saying he no longer believes that. (Eldeib, 6/12)

During the first five years of life, more than half the calories a growing child consumes go to fueling the massive construction project inside their cranium. Building a brain — all the neuronal connections that form memories, store language, perceive the world, control bodily movements — is an energy-intensive act of singular creation. (Molteni, 6/11)

Federal inspectors found no evidence that ByHeart Inc.’s infant formula production process caused a botulism outbreak that sickened dozens of babies, according to a new report that pointed to contaminated ingredients as a more likely culprit. The inspection report posted Thursday by the US Food and Drug Administration examined the Iowa factory where ByHeart’s formula was made. The report said it’s more likely raw ingredients were the source of the outbreak than the manufacturing equipment and storage practices of the Blendhouse facility in Allerton, Iowa. (Edney, 6/11)

A New Mexico judge on Thursday dismissed a lawsuit that challenged the state’s universal childcare program, allowing the ambitious and closely watched experiment to continue. Attorneys for former Republican gubernatorial candidate Duke Rodriguez and other plaintiffs had questioned the process used by Democratic Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s administration to eliminate an income cap and co-pays for childcare assistance before the Legislature had a chance to weigh in or approve funding. (Peters, 6/12)