North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum (R) on Monday signed a bill banning abortion at six weeks of pregnancy, in today's bite-sized hospital and health industry news from Illinois, North Dakota, and Washington.

• Illinois: Over 12 weeks, patients with treatment-resistant episodic migraine experienced a significant decrease in monthly migraine days while taking atogepant once a day, compared with patients taking a placebo, according to results from the ELEVATE trial. In particular, the treatment helped "people who had already tried up to four other types of drugs to prevent migraine and either had no improvement or had side effects that outweighed any benefits," said Patricia Pozo-Rosich of  Vall d'Hebron University Hospital in Barcelona, Spain. All trial participants previously experienced unsuccessful treatments, with two to four oral preventive migraine medications. In total, 56% of participants failed two classes of oral prophylactic drugs and 44% failed at least three classes. "People who thought they may not find a way to prevent and treat their migraines may have hope of finding relief with a tolerable, oral, easy-to-use drug," Pozo-Rosich noted. "This treatment was safe, well-tolerated, and effective for people with difficult-to-treat migraine." (George, MedPage Today, 4/20)
• North Dakota: Gov. Burgum on Monday signed a bill banning abortion at six weeks of pregnancy. The bill, which went into effect immediately, only provides exceptions in cases of rape or incest up to six weeks of pregnancy, making it one of the strictest bans in the country. Since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last summer, at least 14 states have enacted strict bans on abortion services. "This bill clarifies and refines existing state law which was triggered into effect by the [U.S. Supreme Court] Dobbs decision and reaffirms North Dakota as a pro-life state," Burgum said. (Axios, 4/24)
• Washington: Gov. Jay Inslee (D) earlier this month signed a law that makes it easier to access aid-in-dying services under the Death with Dignity Act, which allows terminally ill patients with an estimated six months or less left to live to qualify for physician-assisted death. Previously, patients would have to submit three requests to receive the drugs needed to end their lives — once in writing and twice orally, with a 15-day waiting period between the oral requests. Then, two doctors had to confirm the patient's prognosis. Under the new law, which lowered the waiting time between oral requests to seven days, patients will experience shorter wait times between when they request life-ending mediation and when they receive it. In addition, the measure will allow more providers, including physician assistants and advanced nurse practitioners, to approve requests for a medically assisted death. It will also allow the drugs required for medically assisted deaths to be mailed to patients. (Santos, Axios, 4/24)