the article is commentary and has no abstract

CONTEXT The legal status of induced abortion helps determine the availability of safe, affordable abortion services in a country, which in turn influences rates of maternal mortality and morbidity. It is important, therefore, for health professionals to know both the current status of abortion laws worldwide and the extent to which those laws are changing. METHODS Abortion-related laws in 152...

© 2004 Canadian Medical Association or its licensors We applaud the Executive of the Section on Emergency Medicine of the Ontario Medical Association for their call to action. We support many of the points made in their position statement but ultimately believe that a law for the mandatory reporting of gunshot wounds will do more harm than good. Ovens describes the support the position statemen...

Assaults on patients and medical personnel, facilities, and transports, denial of access to medical services, and misuse of medical facilities and emblems have become a feature of armed conflict despite their prohibition by the laws of war. Strategies to improve compliance with these laws, protection, and accountability are lacking, and regular reporting of violations is absent. A systematic re...

Twenty-three states and the District of Columbia have passed laws implementing medical marijuana programs. The nineteen programs that were in operation as of October 2014 collectively had over one million participants. All states (including D.C.) with medical marijuana laws require physicians directly or indirectly to authorize the use of marijuana at their discretion, yet little is known about...

Thirty-four states have medical marijuana laws, and 10 recreational laws. Little research compares how these two types of laws affect drug consumption in the general population or particular age groups. Using a difference-in-differences strategy, we find that increase past-year use by 25 percent among adults adolescents. In contrast, adult only 5 negligible effect on adolescent use. We also dis...

We invoke a triple rationale to rebut Hooper and Spicer's argument against mandatory helmet laws. First, we use the laws of physics and empirical studies to show how bicycle helmets afford substantial protection to the user. We show that Hooper and Spicer erroneously downplay helmet utility and that, as a result, their attack on the utilitarian argument for mandatory helmet laws is weakened. Ne...