The Oklahoma Supreme Court on Tuesday ruled that the state's constitution assures a "limited right" to abortion, in today's bite-sized hospital and health industry news from Georgia, Oklahoma, Virginia, and Washington.

• Georgia: Johnson & Johnson Innovation and Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff invested in a $90 million funding round for the launch of Artera, a company that uses artificial intelligence (AI) to develop predictive cancer tests. Artera will use the funding to distribute its flagship test, which identifies therapy benefit in localized prostate cancer, and to develop tests that help personalize therapy for other cancers. "The American Cancer Society estimates that more than 288,000 new cases of prostate cancer will arise in 2023, with more than 34,000 deaths. AI has given clinicians and patients a powerful weapon in the fight against this disease," said Andre Esteva, co-founder and CEO of Artera. "Clinicians can now leverage Artera's unique test to prognosticate patient outcomes and personalize treatment decisions." (Schwartz, Becker's Hospital Review, 3/21)
• Oklahoma: The Oklahoma Supreme Court on Tuesday ruled 5-4 that the state's constitution assures a "limited right" to abortion, including in cases with a "reasonable" expectation that pregnancy poses a threat to life. Last year, abortion providers filed a lawsuit challenging two laws — a pre-Roe v. Wade ban and a ban signed into law by the governor in 2022. Ultimately, the court ruled that the 2022 ban interfered with the "inherent right to terminate a pregnancy to preserve the woman's life." Abortion providers argued that the state's constitution protects abortion rights. "No person shall be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law," the constitution states. In particular, the 2022 ban prohibits health providers from performing an abortion unless a person's life is "endangered by a physical disorder, physical illness or physical injury." In its opinion, the court highlights a language discrepancy between "save the life of a pregnant woman" and "preserve her life," which are both found in different abortion laws in Oklahoma. According to the judges, the first phrase, "save the life of a pregnant woman," limits abortions to a pregnant person "in a medical emergency" if their life "is endangered." This requires a person to be in "actual and present danger" to obtain a "medically necessary abortion," the opinion said. "Requiring one to wait until there is a medical emergency would further endanger the life of the pregnant woman and does not serve a compelling state interest." (Chen/ González, Axios, 3/21)
• Virginia/Washington: In a studypublished last week in JAMA, researchers from the Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine, the University of Washington's pediatrics and epidemiology department, and Seattle Children's Research Institute found that the mortality rate for people ages one to 19 rose by 10.7% from 2019 to 2020 and by 8.4% from 2020 to 2021. According to the study, the increases were largely driven by fatal injuries from firearms, drugs, and cars — not by COVID-19 deaths. The increases were the largest seen in decades, following a "great period" of decreasing pediatric mortality rates, the study noted. The most significant increase was among children ages 10 to 19, but the rate also increased among children ages one to 10. Infants under the age of one did not have a significant increase in mortality during this time. "Medicine and public health have made remarkable progress in lowering pediatric mortality rates, but the lives they have saved are now endangered by man-made pathogens," the study authors wrote. (McPhillips, CNN, 3/14; Gans, The Hill, 3/14)