• California: Children who eat peanut products from infancy are less likely to develop peanut allergies later in life, according to a recent study published in NEJM Evidence. For the study, researchers followed more than 500 participants until the age of 12 and found that, by age 12, 15.4% of participants who avoided peanuts from infancy to age five developed an allergy compared to 4.4% of participants who had consumed peanuts. Michelle Huffaker, an author on the study and director of translational medicine at the University of California at San Francisco, said it was "extraordinary" that the study demonstrated that early exposure to peanuts correlated to a lower risk of a peanut allergy lasting at least to age 12. "We'd love to spread the word to more families and reach people that may not know about this," she said. (Lee, TIME, 5/28; Vinall, Washington Post, 5/29)
• Florida: Florida has become the first state to allow doctors to perform C-sections outside of hospitals, following the passage of a law allowing "advanced birth centers," where physicians can deliver babies vaginally or by C-section to women deemed to be at low risk of complications. The law requires these centers have a transfer agreement with a hospital, though it doesn't dictate where the facilities can open or how close they need to be to a hospital. Advocates of the policy say the change will lower costs and expand care options. Florida state Sen. Gayle Harrell also noted that these centers will have to meet the same standards for staffing, infection control, and other aspects as outpatient surgery centers. However, Alice Abernathy, an assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, said the law looks like "a poor substitute for quality obstetrical care effectively being billed as something that gives people more choices." She added the law "feels like a bad band-aid on a chronic issue that will make outcomes worse rather than better." (Galewitz, KFF Health News, 5/28)
• Louisiana: Gov. Jeff Landry (R) on Friday signed into law a bill that will make Louisiana the first state to classify the abortion medications mifepristone and misoprostol as controlled substances. According to the law, any person caught with either drug without a prescription could face up to 10 years in prison. Currently, abortion is illegal in Louisiana except to save the life of the mother and in cases of lethal fetal anomaly. (Brasted, Axios, 5/24; Messerly, Politico, 5/23)

Developing or losing allergies in adulthood isn't unusual, but why certain allergies come and go is largely not understood by scientists, Hannah Seo reports for the  New York Times.