TV News LIES

Five years ago, Dr. George Tiller was shot and killed at the Wichita, Kans., church where he was an usher. Tiller was widely known for performing abortions in late pregnancy and had become a target for protests.

It was the morning of May 31, 2009, and fellow usher Gary Hoepner remembers they had finished their greeting duties and had walked out into the waiting area to get a doughnut.

The Obama administration struck a major blow for transgender rights by quietly ending a decades-long blanket ban that prevented Medicare from covering sex reassignment surgery.

The Department of Health and Human Services’ Departmental Appeals Board, an internal review structure within the byzantine federal agency, issued a ruling that ended a ban on Medicare even considering covering sex reassignment surgery and related care because a fear of “serious complications” resulting from the “experimental” surgery. That language was issued in 1981, and most medical professional organizations now consider sex reassignment surgery a safe and accepted procedure. The DAB ruling noted the change in how sex reassignment surgery is understood 33 years after the Medicare ban was issued.

A complaint filed with the Department of Health and Human Services accused four Florida insurance companies of discriminating against patients with HIV and AIDS.

The National Health Law Program and the AIDS Institute said in the complaint that CoventryOne, Cigna, Humana and Preferred Medical have all structured their plans so costs for HIV and AIDS medications are so high that customers with the disease will be discouraged from choosing them as their insurer. They allege that these companies are violating section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act, which prohibits insurance companies from discriminating against customers on the basis of disability.

Pharmaceutical company Boehringer Ingelheim announced Wednesday it had reached a $650 million settlement in state and federal cases in the U.S. regarding the blood thinner Pradaxa.

In a statement released by the company, senior vice president and general counsel of Boehringer Ingelheim USA Corporation, Desiree Ralls-Morrison, said that despite the settlement, "BI stands resolutely behind Pradaxa and believed from the outset that the plaintiffs' claims lacked merit."

A group of 53 leading scientists has warned the World Health Organisation not to classify e-cigarettes as tobacco products, arguing that doing so would jeopardize a major opportunity to slash disease and deaths caused by smoking.

The UN agency, which is currently assessing its position on the matter, has previously indicated it would favor applying similar restrictions to all nicotine-containing products.

In an open letter to WHO Director General Margaret Chan, the scientists from Europe, North America, Asia and Australia argued that low-risk products like e-cigarettes were "part of the solution" in the fight against smoking, not part of the problem.

From Texas to Alabama, laws are being enacted that would greatly restrict access to abortion, forcing many women to travel hundreds of miles to find a clinic. The laws, requiring abortion doctors to have privileges to admit patients to local hospitals, could have a profound impact on women in poor and rural sections of the Bible Belt.

In many places in the South, clinic doctors come from out of state to perform abortions and don't have ties to a local hospital. Critics say the laws mean hospitals, leery of attracting anti-abortion protesters, could get veto power over whether the already-scarce clinics remain in business. They say the real aim is to outlaw abortions while supporters say they are protecting women's health.