A bill broadening so-called conscience protections and the number of employers who can refuse to provide contraception services in health insurance coverage has been approved by a North Carolina House committee.

The bill approved Wednesday allows any medical professional to refuse to participate in an abortion and allows any business to refuse to provide contraception coverage on religious or moral grounds.

The bill expands so-called conscience protections beyond doctors and nurses to include people such as pharmacists and technicians.

The contraception provision expands existing law that exempts religious organizations to any private or nonprofit company.

The bill also outlaws health care plans that include abortion services from future online marketplaces of private plans offered under the federal Affordable Care Act.

Opponents say the bill tramples women's rights.

Copyright 2013 The Associated Press.

Second Harvest Food Bank of Metrolina is hoping the public can help them click their way to a grant from Walmart by voting for them in the "Fighting Hunger Together" initiative.

This initiative is a national campaign where money is awarded to programs that get the most votes for their innovative and effective programs that help alleviate child hunger. The public will decide what organization will receive the grants through a voting campaign at www.facebook.com/walmart that includes more than 300 different hunger relief organizations from across the country.

The more votes a Feeding America food bank or partner agency gets, the better chances they have of winning the money.

The campaign kicked off April 1, and ends 11:59 pm ET on April 30.

Insurance Commissioner Wayne Goodwin asked North Carolina to clean out its medicine cabinets, and people throughout the state answered the call. From March 17 to 23, more than 250 Operation Medicine Drop events were held in 74 counties across North Carolina to provide people with a way to safely dispose of expired and unneeded prescription and over-the-counter medications.

As a result, more than 12 million doses of medications were safely collected and destroyed.

“The only way we could have had success like this, and ultimately protect our children, is when North Carolinians come together and responsibly dispose of their medications,” said Goodwin.