Peter Shumlin, the Democratic Governor of the small progressive-leaning state, signed into law a bill that lawmakers adopted last week. Vermont follows the states of Oregon and Washington in legalizing the practice. (AFP)

A federal judge on Friday temporarily blocked enforcement of one of the country’s most stringent abortion laws, an Arkansas ban on the procedure at the 12th week of pregnancy, saying the law was likely to be declared unconstitutional. (New York Times)

El Salvador’s Supreme Court heard opening arguments Wednesday in a landmark abortion case in which a woman suffering from kidney failure and lupus has not been allowed to terminate a pregnancy in which the fetus is given no chance of surviving. The Central American country’s laws prohibit all abortions, even when a woman’s health is at risk. At present, the woman and any doctor who terminated her 23-week pregnancy would face arrest and criminal charges. (ABC News)

The Strasbourg, France-based court said Switzerland must specify whether its laws are meant to include people not suffering from terminal illnesses and, if so, spell out the conditions under which they can end their lives. (Washington Post)

Vermont is poised to become the third U.S. state to allow doctor-assisted suicide, after its legislature passed a bill allowing physicians to prescribe lethal drugs to terminally ill patients. (Reuters)

In the latest attempt to overturn the prohibition on doctors helping to end the lives of their patients, the court of appeal is considering three requests for legal guidelines to be relaxed. (The Guardian)

A federal judge in New York on Friday declined to temporarily halt a court order directing the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to make emergency contraception available over the counter to girls of all ages. (Chicago Tribune)

In refusing to discuss mentally ill patients’ conditions with family members or caretakers, physicians could be misinterpreting federal privacy rules, witnesses told a House panel April 25. (American Medical News)

Come January, millions of low-income adults will gain health insurance coverage through Medicaid in one of the farthest-reaching provisions of the Obama health care law. How will that change their finances, spending habits, use of available medical services and — most important — their health? (New York Times)

Proposed new legislation won’t change Ireland’s general ban on abortion, Prime Minister Enda Kenny said Wednesday, but is about “saving lives” when pregnant women are in danger. Ireland’s government published the proposed measure late Tuesday to clarify what happens when there’s a threat to the mother’s life, including a risk of suicide. (CNN)

Lautenberg introduced a bill Thursday called the Peace Corps Equity Act of 2013, which echoes the law that extended the coverage for military women, the Shaheen Amendment. The new bill, also co-sponsored by Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), would overturn a 1979 appropriations bill that banned the Peace Corps from offering this benefit [abortion coverage in the case of rape or incest] in its federal health plan. (NPR)

A House panel says the agency didn’t do enough to prevent a meningitis outbreak linked to compounded medications. The FDA says it needs more regulatory authority. (American Medical News)

A terminally ill Irish woman has lost the latest legal challenge in her fight to win the right to take her own life, with the assistance of her partner. (BBC)

In 2012, the Council of Europe (CoE) Parliamentary Assembly began the first steps towards nanotechnology regulation with a view to respecting the scientific precautionary principles. It commissioned an expert report, “Nanotechnology: balancing benefits and risks to public health and the environment”, enthusiastically accepted at the CoE meeting of the Committee on Social Affairs, Health and Sustainable Development in November 2012. That same report is slated for public debate before the entire Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly in Strasbourg France, April 26, 2013. (Nanotechnology Now)

The appearance underscored the central role women played in helping to reelect Obama in November. It also marked the first time that a sitting U.S. president has delivered a keynote address to Planned Parenthood, one of the nation’s largest providers of abortions and other women’s health services. (Washington Post)

Abortion clinics and women’s health centers have kept the cost of abortion stable since the onset of the 2008 recession, at a time of escalating health costs. But now state legislatures are considering a wide range of restrictions that will make the procedure less accessible, driving up costs. (Reuters)

Family Research Council (FRC) congratulated Kansas Governor Sam Brownback and the state of Kansas for the passage and signing of Kansas SB 199. The law establishes a new adult stem cell research and treatment center at the University of Kansas Medical Center in Kansas City’s medical school. (The Wall Street Journal)

Rejecting the Medicaid expansion in the federal health care law could have unexpected consequences for states where Republican lawmakers remain steadfastly opposed to what they scorn as “Obamacare.” (Associated Press)

Now prosecutor Jonathan Ratel awaits a verdict as early as next week in a trial that featured sometimes chilling testimony from more than 80 witnesses — including a crucial eyewitness account from a Toronto man who paid for a kidney in what the court heard was a vast and illegal trade in human body parts. (The Toronto Star)

Paul Lamb is the latest person to seek a change in the law so that he can be allowed to die with the help of a doctor. (BBC)

While many young adults are now covered by the Affordable Care Act, able to remain on their parents’ insurance until age 26, the rules are different for those like Cox-Reed, who grew up in the foster care system. (CNN)