Health

(NEW YORK) — American biotechnology company Moderna announced Monday that a booster dose of its bivalent COVID-19 vaccine performs better against two circulating versions of the omicron variant, compared with a booster shot of its original formula.

The news echoes a similar announcement made earlier this month by American pharmaceutical company Pfizer and its German partner, BioNTech, about their own bivalent booster shot.

In late August, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration authorized bivalent formulations of COVID-19 vaccines developed by Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech for use as a single booster dose at least two months following primary or booster vaccination, designed to be a better match against the BA.4 and BA.5 subvariants. Since then, more than 31 million Americans have received the updated booster shots, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Each of the companies now have released data indicating their new formulations generate a superior antibody response against the current omicron subvariants.

According to a press release, new data from a Phase 2-3 clinical trial shows Moderna’s bivalent vaccine triggered antibody responses against the BA.4 and BA.5 omicron subvariants that were on average 15.1-fold higher, compared with the company’s prototype vaccine, when measured in adults approximately nine and a half months after prior vaccination. The safety and tolerability profile of the bivalent booster remains similar to the original vaccine, with adverse events “generally lower than the second dose of the primary series,” Moderna said.

The company noted that a preliminary analysis suggests its bivalent booster showed “neutralizing activity” against a descendant of BA.5 called BQ.1.1, which comprises a growing portion of COVID-19 cases. Moderna CEO Stephane Bancel praised the data in a statement, saying it confirms “that updated vaccines have the potential to offer protection as the virus continues to evolve rapidly to escape our immunity.”

Moderna’s analysis, as described in the press release, has not been vetted through the normal scientific review process.

Smaller independent studies by outside scientists suggest there is little difference between antibody responses produced by the original and updated formulas of the Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines, though both boosted antibody protection.

All of these studies are conducted by taking blood samples from recently vaccinated participants and measuring antibodies in a laboratory. They give us a hint of how well the vaccines might work but do not tell the full story of their effectiveness. Vaccines are still expected to offer a high level of protection against severe illness.

Once the dominant viral strain, the BA.5 subvariant is now estimated to account for about 30% of all new COVID-19 cases in the United States, according to the CDC. Newer versions of the omicron variant, such as BQ.1 and BQ.1.1, are slowly overtaking as a proportion of estimated cases, at 20% and 24%, respectively. These subvariants are descendants of BA.5.

The current COVID-19 situation in the U.S. is relatively stable, with cases rising slightly as hospitalizations and deaths remain comparatively consistent.

As the world nears its third year of the COVID-19 pandemic and the virus continues to evolve, booster shots are expected to bolster protection against severe illness but not necessarily mild or asymptomatic breakthrough infections.

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(NEW YORK) — A Michigan pediatric hospital is reporting it is completely full due to a surge of cases linked to respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV.

C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital in Ann Arbor — which is about 44 miles west of Detroit — said it has seen 259 children sick with RSV this season, a 46% spike from the same number seen this time last year.

Hospital officials said they are worried that this surge — coupled with an earlier flu season and a potential new COVID-19 wave — could put more stress on the health care system.

“We have been 100% full, I think we’re going on our sixth week, and RSV seems to have emerged earlier this year and in higher numbers this year,” Luanne Thomas Ewald, chief operating officer at Mott Children’s Hospital, told ABC News. “And the fact that we’re already full is concerning to us because we’re just starting to see flu in our emergency room.”

She continued, “Some reports have told us that we will also see an increase in COVID in kids during this flu season. So we haven’t really even seen the full impacts of the flu and COVID — and we’re already at capacity.”

The situation in Michigan is just the latest example of some hospitals across the country reporting they have reached capacity due to a high number of RSV cases.

According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, weekly RSV cases nationwide have risen from 5,872 the week ending Oct. 1 to 8,597 the week ending Nov. 5.

In Michigan, the 5-week average of positive RSV tests has increased from 95.7 the week ending Oct. 1 to 257 the week ending Oct. 29, the latest date for which CDC data is available.

Because of this, officials say wait times in the emergency department at Mott Children’s Hospital are much longer than usual.

To ease the burden on emergency room staff, Ewald said she and other hospital officials are asking parents to call their children’s primary care physician first to determine whether they need such treatment.

“Most pediatricians can diagnose RSV and can treat RSV, and most kids recover really, really well with rest and hydration,” Ewald said. “We’re really trying to tell the community throughout the state of Michigan, please partner with your pediatrician. Let’s use our urgent cares as well and only come to the emergency room when absolutely necessary.”

Although it’s rare, between 100 and 500 pediatric deaths occur from RSV every year, according to the CDC. Deaths among children from RSV have already been reported in states including Michigan and Virginia.

Ewald said the hospital is working to increase capacity by treating children in rooms traditionally used to draw blood and in stretchers lined up in the hallway, and they’re doubling up stretchers in private rooms. The hospital is also looking at transferring patients to local medical centers.

“We are working very closely with our community hospitals. Some of our community hospitals do have some pediatric beds available,” Ewald said. “So we’re really trying to take a statewide approach to make sure we’re taking care of these kids in our state.”

She also encouraged parents to make sure their children are up to date on their flu and COVID-19 vaccines, practice good hand hygiene and to consider masking indoors.

 

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(LONDON) — The head of the World Health Organization said Wednesday that there has been a 90% drop in global COVID-19 deaths since February, which he called a “cause for optimism” but still urged “caution” amid the ongoing pandemic.

“Just over 9,400 COVID-19 deaths were reported to WHO last week — almost 90% less than in February of this year, when weekly deaths topped 75,000,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said during a virtual press briefing from the U.N. agency’s Geneva headquarters.

“We have come a long way, and this is definitely cause for optimism, but we continue to call on all governments, communities and individuals to remain vigilant,” he added. “Almost 10,000 deaths a week is 10,000 too many, for a disease that can be prevented and treated.”

Tedros warned that COVID-19 testing and sequencing rates remain low globally, vaccination gaps between wealthy and poor nations are still wide and “concerning” new variants continue to proliferate.

“WHO continues to urge caution, and we continue to urge everyone to be fully vaccinated — including getting your next dose if it’s due,” he said.

A novel coronavirus now known as SARS-CoV-2 was first identified from an outbreak in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. The virus, which causes the disease COVID-19, quickly spread around the globe, prompting the WHO to declare a pandemic in March 2020.

So far, more than 634 million confirmed cases of COVID-19 have been reported worldwide and over 6.6 million people have died, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

The highly contagious omicron variant and its fast-spreading subvariant BA.5 are currently the dominant versions of the virus globally, according to the WHO.

A number of vaccines against COVID-19 have been developed and approved around the world, including new bivalent booster shots that target omicron subvariants. More than 12.8 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines have been administered worldwide, according to Johns Hopkins data.

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(KANSAS CITY) — An elementary school in Kansas City, Kansas, has become one of the latest to temporarily close due to a surge in respiratory illnesses among students and staff.

Christ the King Catholic School closed for three days starting Wednesday “due to illness,” including flu and RSV (respiratory syncytial virus), the school announced this week.

“With the high number of positive Influenza A and RSV cases among our faculty, staff, and students, we will be disinfecting the building as well,” the school said on social media on Tuesday. “Please pray for the health of our CTK community.”

School officials told ABC Kansas City, Missouri, affiliate KMBC-TV that out of 250 students, 50 to 60 were out sick. Seven of the school’s 21 teachers also have the flu, RSV or COVID-19, the station reported.

“Just anticipating that it would continue to spread this week, we went ahead and called it so that we could also disinfect the building,” Principal Cathy Fithian told KMBC.

A shortage of faculty also factored into the decision.

“If you can’t staff your building and have teachers in the classrooms, you just can’t have school,” she told KMBC.

The school did not immediately respond to ABC News’ request for comment.

The closure comes as the region is seeing a surge in pediatric emergency department visits for flu-like symptoms, including RSV. The common respiratory virus typically causes mild, cold-like symptoms, though can be serious for some, especially infants and older adults.

Overland Park Regional Medical Center said it has seen a 100% increase in patients coming into the pediatric emergency department since school started for seasonal illnesses such as bronchiolitis, which is most commonly caused by RSV, and flu.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data shows an increase in confirmed RSV cases for the Midwest region, which includes Kansas and Missouri, starting in September.

Nationwide, RSV cases have risen from 2,191 cases for the week ending Sept. 3 to 13,759 for the week ending Oct. 29, CDC data shows.

According to the CDC, respiratory illnesses are appearing earlier, and in more people, than is typical.

Doctors have warned that Americans may face a “tripledemic” this year, with rising RSV cases alongside the spread of COVID-19 and the flu this fall and winter.

Children are likely being exposed to viruses now that pandemic restrictions such as masking, social distancing and lockdowns have been mostly lifted, public health experts say.

School districts in several states have also been impacted by illness this school year.

In Kentucky, all Fayette County Public Schools closed on Monday “because of widespread illness among students and staff,” the district said. In North Carolina, Jackson County Public Schools were also closed on Monday “as a result of illness and staffing concerns.”

In Alabama, public schools in Marshall County went remote this week due to an increase in flu cases among students and staff.

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(NEW YORK) — Two quick-thinking Kansas City, Missouri, police officers are being hailed as heroes after they sprang into action and saved a newborn baby’s life.

Officers Richard DuChaine and Charles Owen responded to a call Thursday about a baby who was not breathing, according to Kansas City police.

DuChaine immediately began chest compressions and then back thrusts on the small baby girl. By the time EMS providers arrived, Kamiya was breathing again.

“We always had that fear in the back of our head that, ‘Is what we’re doing enough? Is it going to be enough to bring her back?'” DuChaine told ABC News’ Good Morning America. “Obviously, once we are able to bring her back, that was a huge sigh of relief.”

Kamiya was rushed to the hospital where her mother said she was diagnosed with respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV, an illness that is surging to record levels among children across the country.

Each year in the United States, an estimated 58,000 to 80,000 children younger than 5 years old are hospitalized due to RSV infection, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Most children recover in a week or two, but RSV can be serious, especially for infants and the elderly.

The baby’s mother, Tajanea Allen, said Kamiya is back home and that the two men are her heroes.

“He’s a hero, he’s my hero. He’s my daughter’s hero. He’s a hero, like I would do anything for the man,” said Allen. “The man is a hero, he saved my daughter.”

DuChaine and Owen said they were just fulfilling their duty.

“We don’t feel like heroes. We just feel like we did something good,” said Owen.

DuChaine added, “We don’t do this job to be called heroes. We do this job to preserve life and … just overall, just protecting the people of the city.”

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(NEW YORK) — Relaxed PSA screening guidelines may be leading to more late-stage cancer diagnoses, and the current recommendations updated to address this concern might preferentially serve white men, a new study suggests.

One in eight men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer in their lifetime, according to the American Cancer Society (ACS). One of the only available ways to screen for prostate cancer is by measuring levels of a protein called prostate specific antigen (PSA). But for years, doctors have debated the usefulness of this test, arguing that not all prostate cancer needs to be diagnosed, since it’s not always lethal, and doesn’t always need treatment.

“Many cases are extremely slow growing. Patients will die with prostate cancer, but not necessarily from prostate cancer,” said Dr. Moshe Ornstein, a genitourinary oncologist at Cleveland Clinic.

In 2012, a panel of experts known as the United States Preventative Task Force (USPSTF) recommended against PSA screening altogether, citing that universal testing may inflict harm due to overtreatment.

But since then, mounting evidence emerged linking less screening with more metastatic prostate cancer, meaning it has spread to distant organs and is no longer curable.

“Metastatic prostate cancer will require lifelong therapy,” Ornstein said.

According to the ACS, five-year survival drops from over 99% with local disease, to 31% once distant.

In 2018, after backlash, the USPSTF revised the guideline, recommending that patients talk to their doctors to determine if PSA screening is right for them, intending for this model to identify those most at risk.

Black men are twice as likely to die from prostate cancer compared to white men, so experts hoped that under the new guidelines, this demographic would be screened. But a new study out in JAMA found that Black men, despite their risk, may not be benefiting from the recommendations as they are currently written.

Researchers from the University of Kansas Medical Center included nearly three million men in their analysis. They trended rates of metastatic prostate cancer in relation to changing guidelines, and found that when PSA testing was discouraged entirely, metastatic disease rose in all groups. But after the guidelines were revised to recommend a conversation with a doctor, mounting rates plateaued in white men, but continued to climb in Black men.

Previous studies also found that after receiving the same education, White patients more often found PSA testing more beneficial, while Black patients more heavily considered the risk, their reasoning often informed by personal and historical experiences of racism and discrimination in healthcare.

“It doesn’t surprise me,” said Dr. Lee Kirksey, co-director of the Center for Multicultural Cardiovascular Care at Cleveland Clinic. “Black Americans have some degree of mistrust of the healthcare system. It is historical context that has been passed down through generations.”

Countless historical injustices have been implicated in this phenomenon, examples dating back as early as the 1840s, when enslaved African American women received experimental gynecological procedures without anesthesia.

Even as recently as the 1970s U.S. physicians were conducting trials withholding treatment from African American men with syphilis, watching as hundreds of men went blind, died and passed on the disease to their spouses and children.

“If you’re from a culturally Black family, you’ve heard of those stories,” Kirksey said. “And those stories are reinforced by the inequities we are seeing today.”

There may be ways to work toward better communication with minority patients, Kirksey said. Increasing patient-physician racial and ethnic concordance may help in establishing trust. Implicit bias training may teach physicians to identify the barriers to effective communication. Additionally, outreach programs may serve to meet patients where they are, using the voices of trusted healthcare workers from the community, in a location where patients are most comfortable.

“There are still concerns within the Black community,” Kirksey said. “It’s important that we continue to acknowledge those concerns, and implement solutions to address them.”

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(NEW YORK) — Six months ago, Dr. Joseph Boselli said he was prescribing the antiviral drug Paxlovid to nearly everyone who turned up at his practice with COVID.

Now, the internal medicine physician at Jefferson Health in Philadelphia said he’s reserving it mostly for people who are 60-plus, with serious health problems, or who aren’t up-to-date on their vaccines.

“I got four calls today, but I only gave Paxlovid to two because they were older,” said Boselli, an internal medicine physician at Jefferson Health in Philadelphia.

After Paxlovid hit the market in December 2021, the bitter, metallic-tasting antiviral pills were so successful at reducing the risk of hospitalization with COVID that many doctors were willing to prescribe the drug to younger adults too despite federal guidelines suggesting it should only go to high-risk patients.

The drug stops the virus from replicating in the body and works best when taken within five days of getting symptoms.

Now, after more than 164 million courses of Paxlovid have been shipped around the world since April, doctors say a clearer picture of the drug is emerging, including its limitations with younger population and the possibility of rebound.

“The tincture of time has showed us that while it is a great drug, and it really does work, it’s not meant for everybody,” said Boselli.

Here are three things to know:

Paxlovid helps older people survive COVID, but younger, healthy people see little benefit

Overall, the drug works as promised, doctors say, by dramatically reducing the chances that an older or high-risk individual might wind up hospitalized or dead.

What’s more is that it might help prevent “long COVID.”

A study released on Monday by the Veterans Administration looking at the medical records of 56,000 people found that taking Paxlovid early decreased the chances of experiencing “long COVID” by some 25%.

Still, the drug isn’t right for everyone, including people taking certain medications such as some cholesterol-lowering drugs and blood thinners.

Also, one study released this summer found little to no benefit for younger adults when looking at some 100,000 patients in Israel. While researchers found the drug reduced hospitalization by roughly 75% when given soon after infection to people 65-plus, it saw no measurable benefit for people ages 40 to 64.

In June, Pfizer announced it would stop enrolling “standard-risk” patients in a trial to see if the broader public might benefit.

In a statement at the time, Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla said, “With up to 40-50% of people around the world estimated to be high risk, we believe there remains a significant unmet need for treatment options to help combat this disease, and we will continue to prioritize efforts to advance the development of Paxlovid.”

‘Rebound’ cases are real and seriously underestimated

Less understood about Paxlovid and COVID in general is a person’s chance of “rebound” — a phenomenon in which a person recovers from an infection and tests negative, only to redevelop COVID symptoms or test positive within eight days after recovering.

The experience is frustrating because the recommendation is that the person return to isolation for another five days because people testing positive during rebound are thought to remain contagious.

The good news is that rebound cases are mild and mostly inconvenient, not life threatening.

The likelihood of getting rebound after taking Paxlovid was initially thought to be very small, less than 2 percent in most cases, according to the Food and Drug Administration and Pfizer, the company that makes the drug.

But doctors say those estimates now seem too low compared to the number of rebound cases being reported, including high-profile examples at the White House.

President Joe Biden and his wife Jill; Biden’s top medical adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci; and Dr. Rochelle Walensky, the head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, each experienced rebound.

Doctors interviewed by ABC News put the real estimate of Paxlovid rebound at anywhere from 10 percent to as much as 30 percent of cases, even though no one knows for sure.

“I’m telling them (patients), it’s very common,” said Dr. George Diaz, of the Infectious Disease Society of America, of Paxlovid rebound.

But Diaz said he’s also telling patients that about a third of people who get COVID experience rebound even without treatment.

“There’s a good chance that you’ll have a rebound whether you take treatment or not,” he said. And with Paxlovid, studies have found “it significantly reduced chance of hospitalization and death,” Diaz added.

US officials more worried about COVID deaths than reports of mild rebound

Health experts and U.S. regulators says they are more concerned that vulnerable patients aren’t getting the drug than they are concerned about healthy people rebounding.

After Walensky wound up with her own case of Paxlovid, the CDC director noted there are still some 400 deaths a day due to COVID and made clear there were no plans to pull back on the government’s recommendation of the drug.

Bob Califf, her FDA counterpart, agreed. He announced on Monday that he tested positive for COVID over the weekend, and a spokesperson confirmed he is being treated with Paxlovid.

“I’m concerned that the discussions about ‘Paxlovid rebound’ are distracting us from the basis for the (drug’s authorization): a substantial reduction in death and hospitalization for high-risk patients,” he tweeted.

Dr. Judith O’Donnell, an infectious disease specialist at Penn Presbyterian Medical Center, said she agrees there are serious benefits for people 50-plus as well as younger patients with serious underlying health conditions like asthma, obesity or kidney disease.

“The drug does make a real and measurable difference in the trajectory of the infection,” she said.

So “even though there’s a risk of rebound, that would not prevent me from using it in the correct patient,” she later added.

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(NEW YORK) — The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced an investigation into a listeria outbreak that has been reported in six different states and has infected 16 people.

At least 13 people have been hospitalized and one pregnant person suffered a pregnancy loss due to the illness. Additionally, one death has been reported from Maryland, according to a release Wednesday.

Most people reported recently eating meat or cheese from deli counters, according to the CDC, who is now working to identify the specific products that may be contaminated.

The CDC also reported that 11 of the reported cases were found in people of Eastern European descent or who speak Russian.

Cases have been reported in California, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey and New York.

Listeria is a bacterial illness that happens after eating contaminated food. Each year, roughly 1,600 people get sick and 260 people die from listeria contamination. People who are pregnant, adults over 65 and immunocompromised people are most at risk, according to the CDC.

The CDC recommends cleaning the refrigerator, containers and surfaces that may have touched meat or cheese from a deli and to avoid consuming meat and cheese from a deli counter, especially for those considered high risk.

Symptoms of invasive illness caused by listeria — when the bacteria has spread beyond the gut — usually start within two weeks after eating contaminated food and can include fever, fatigue, muscle aches and confusion, among other symptoms. The CDC urged anyone who thinks they are experiencing symptoms of severe listeria illness after eating meat or cheese from a deli to call their healthcare provider right away.

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(NEW YORK) — Taylor Dayne is known on stage for her ’80s top-hits like “Tell It to My Heart,” “Prove Your Love” and “Love Will Lead You Back,” but now she is stepping back into the spotlight for a different reason. The Grammy-nominated singer wants to raise awareness about the importance of self-advocacy and routine screenings — which could be lifesaving.

“Life is precious,” Dayne told ABC News’ Good Morning America.

In July, the 60-year-old singer was diagnosed with colon cancer after a routine colonoscopy, a procedure that she has twice a year after doctors found benign polyps in the past. This time, she said doctors discovered a polyp that held an aggressive cancer.

Dayne said her world went “dark” at the word “cancer,” but said that her doctor re-assured her they had found her illness early, which increases the chance of positive treatment outcomes.

“He never even said the stage,” said Dayne, who thought back to her last colonoscopy. “All I could do is [think], ‘OK, five months ago, I know there was nothing. So this is early detection.”

Colon cancer is the third most leading cause of cancer-related deaths in the U.S., according to the American Cancer Society, but also highly treatable and curable, if found early through a colonoscopy.

Dayne said weeks after she discovered her cancer, she underwent surgery that removed 10 inches of her colon and was declared cancer free right after the procedure.

Although she said she didn’t have to undergo chemo or radiation, she said she experienced a “complication” during her recovery and developed an infection post-operation.

“I ended up staying in the hospital for about 15 days, 20 days,” said Dayne. “There’s no guarantees when they open you up, what’s going to happen. That’s really the truth.”

Once Dayne was released from the hospital, she said she had to focus on getting better, not just physically, but emotionally. Her hospitalization brought her back to traumatic memories from her childhood when she suffered from terrible kidney infections.

“For me, being back, I felt like I was four years old again back in the hospital, basically locked inside my own body without a voice,” said Dayne. “So, this has challenged me mentally, emotionally. I am now back in a therapy program.”

Now, Dayne said she is feeling stronger and wants others, especially women, to talk to their doctors about their own personal risk factors and when they should be screened for things like colon cancer — just in case.

“When you’re really sick, you don’t have the energy, you’re really relying on your champions around you, your soldiers, your people,” she said. “Find the doctor that will tell you the truth. Be a warrior for yourself.”

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(NEW YORK) — Filmmaker Cynthia Lowen began the process of making the new documentary film “Battleground” with a genuine curiosity about the anti-abortion movement.

Lowen wanted to understand how, despite being in the minority, anti-abortion movement organizers “were being so successful in advancing their agenda,” she told ABC News Correspondent Phil Lipof.

The new documentary “Battleground,” which was released this year in theaters and is now available on streaming platforms, began in the summer of 2019, a full three years before Roe v. Wade was overturned.

Lowen said she started filming in Alabama, where the team was focused at first on documenting the abortion-rights movement.

She quickly realized, she told ABC News, how crucial it would be to frame the film from a minority perspective by including multiple important voices from the anti-abortion movement.

A recent survey by Pew Research Center found that 62% of Americans think abortion should be legal in all or most cases. A 2017 study by the Guttmacher Institute found that nearly 1 in 4 women will have an abortion in their lifetime.

“Battleground” features three women in influential positions within the anti-abortion movement: the president of an influential anti-abortion lobbying organization, the founder of the largest anti-abortion youth organization in the country, and the founder of Pro-Life San Francisco.

Part of the goal of the film is to challenge assumptions and notions about the anti-abortion movement by showing organizers that are neither religious nor conservative about other beliefs.

“What I discovered that really surprised me is that there are a lot of women who are leading the anti-abortion movement,” said Lowen.

One example is Terrisa Bukovinac, the founder of Pro-Life San Francisco, who identifies as an atheist, a feminist and a Democrat with progressive values. “[She] is a very different face of the anti-abortion movement than many people expect,” Lowen said.

“She represents,” Lowen added, “what the movement is trying to do in terms of appealing to young people as single-issue voters.”

“If they don’t grow their base and appeal to non-religious people, to young people and cultivate those single-issue voters,” she added, “they may not continue to have the kind of success and inroads that they’ve had legislatively.”

Despite representing a minority opinion, the anti-abortion movement has been very successful. Roe v. Wade was overturned in June 2022, opening up the opportunity for dozens of states across the country to restrict access to legal abortions.

One of the scenes in the documentary includes audiotape of Lowen’s team obtained from a conversation between evangelical leaders and former President Donald Trump, who was a presidential candidate at the time.

“You really hear this deal being made,” Lowen said, “which is that if Donald Trump will advance the agenda and the priorities of Christian right, the Christian white right will rally their base to get out and vote for him.”

Trump’s success in appointing three conservative Supreme Court justices was instrumental in the anti-abortion movement’s success in overturning Roe v. Wade.

The documentary also includes interviews with leaders from the abortion-rights movement, including President and CEO of Planned Parenthood Alexis McGill Johnson.

Lowen told ABC News she personally disagrees with the anti-abortion movement, saying it “deprives other people of their rights and other people of the opportunity to make health care decisions for themselves that are in their own best interests.”

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