Health

(NEW YORK) — COVID-19 remained the leading cause of law enforcement deaths in 2022 despite the number attributed to the virus dramatically declining.

A new report released Wednesday by the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund looked at preliminary data and found that 226 federal, state, tribal and local law enforcement officers died last year while in the line of duty.

Of those deaths, 70 can be attributed to COVID-19. However, this is an 83% decline compared to the 405 officers who died from COVID-19-related complications in 2021.

“While America’s law enforcement officers are still battling the deadly effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been a significant reduction in such overall deaths, likely attributed to reduced infection rates and the broad availability and use of vaccinations,” the report read.

Marcia Ferranto, CEO of NLEOMF, told ABC News to recognize an officer line of duty death from COVID as such, each case is reviewed by a medical team and then by a group of 13 law enforcement peers.

“At that point, it is determined whether this would be considered a line of duty death,” she said. “At this point, for 2022, we’re looking at recognizing 70 of these COVID-related cases as official line of duty deaths and each one, tragic.”

In 2021, 586 officers died in the line of duty, a 61% decline year-over-year, that can be attributed directly to the reduction of COVID-19 deaths.

According to the report, firearms-related incidents were the second-highest cause of death in 2022, followed by traffic-related incidents and other.

The “other” category included health-related deaths including heart attacks, stroke and effects from the September 11 attacks as well as accidents including aircraft crashes, falling objects, fires and falling to their deaths.

The report found that Texas had the highest number of law enforcement COVID-19 deaths with 16, followed by Illinois with six, New York with five, Alabama with four and Oklahoma and Tennessee with four each.

Overall, of the 226 fatalities, 204 were male and 22 were female. The average age was 44 years old with an average of 15 years of service. Additionally, each officer left an average of two children behind.

“These numbers bring it close to home and really humanize these men and women, these incredible men and women who are choosing law enforcement as their profession,” Ferranto said.

She said an investment in officer safety and wellness programs can hopefully help drive down these numbers even further in 2023.

Since the COVID-19 pandemic began, only has the virus been the leading cause of death among law enforcement officers but firefighters and other protection service employees had the occupations with the highest death rates from COVID-19.

According to a recent report published by the National Center for Health Statistics — a branch of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — those with protective service occupations had the highest COVID-19 death rate at 60.3 deaths per 100,000 workers in 2020.

This was twice as high as the overall workers’ COVID-19 death rate in 2020, which sits at 28.6 per 100,000.

The authors of the report said this was likely attributed to protective service employees not having jobs that allow them to stay at home as well as working in proximity to others — both colleagues and the public — increasing their risk of infection.

One of those deaths was Niagara Falls Police Department detective Kristina Zell, who passed away from a COVID-related illness in November 2022.

According to local affiliate WKBW, Zell began her career with the NFPD in March 2000 and worked her way up from patrol officer to a detective specializing in sex crime investigations.

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(NEW YORK) — Tens of thousands of Americans have reported a COVID-19 test result to the National Institutes of Health’s website that launched in November.

The site, MakeMyTestCount.org, allows people to anonymously report the results of any brand of at-home COVID-19 test.

In updated data exclusively provided to ABC News, 24,000 people have reported a test result to the site. Additionally, three-fourths of the results are a positive test and women were more likely to report a test result than men.

“I think there’s a greater number of people who are testing for COVID at this time than are being reported on this website. So, this is just sort of a small raindrop in a huge storm,” Dr. Sarah Elisabeth Waldman, an associate professor in the division of infectious diseases at UC Davis Medical Center, told ABC News.

When asked about the discrepancy in women- and men-reporting levels, “I don’t think it’s specific to COVID. I think this is more specific to women in general, having higher rates of self-reporting on voluntary websites and other programs,” she added.

Public health experts said it’s great that there is a place for people to import test results and that more people are doing so than expected — but questions remain about self reported data that could give scientists a better idea of where the virus is spreading and who is most affected.

They also warned that there may be a bias in who is inclined to report test results.

“The fact that we’re seeing three out of four reported tests as positive definitely doesn’t mean that three out of four people are actually positive. Likely, it means that people are more inclined to report a positive than a negative result,” Andrew Weitz, Ph.D., a program director at the NIH and co-lead of the project, told ABC News.

But that doesn’t mean reporting of at-home test results is not beneficial to health officials. In fact, the more results that are provided, the clearer their understanding of COVID in the community is.

“The absolute numbers may or may not tell the whole story, but what I think the public health community is going to start getting a better handle on is how the trends can help us understand that story,” Dr. Krishna Juluru, a presidential innovation fellow at the NIH and co-lead of the project, told ABC News.

Experts also urged the public to report their at-home test results regardless of whether positive or negative to provide health officials with a better sense of what is going on in the community.

“Without the negatives, we don’t have a good idea of what the overall positivity rate might be, and where we’re seeing real significant increases,” Matthew Binnicker, Ph.D., director of the clinical virology laboratory at Mayo Clinic, told ABC News. “We need to be able to determine where COVID is most prevalent, where we’re experiencing a surge [and] we need to have the total number of tested including positive and negatives to really get a good sense of that.”

The NIH is also launching a pilot program in one county in Pennsylvania that will provide free COVID-19 health services entirely virtually. Up to 8,000 eligible residents are anticipated to participate in the program.

Under the program, a patient sick with COVID-19 could receive at-home rapid tests, telehealth sessions and at-home treatments like Paxlovid without leaving their house.

“It’s largely focused on a home setting, but we also allow individuals to have options so if they want to pick up a test at a local community center, after a telehealth consultation if they want to go pick up their medications at a local pharmacy, we allow that as well,” said Juluru.

Since anti-viral drugs, such as Paxlovid, cannot be taken with some other medications, patients must meet with a clinician before any therapeutics are sent to their home.

There are plans to expand the program to multiple other sites throughout the year.

“This is a pilot program, so we’re kind of doing it in the spirit of learning as much as possible,” said Weitz.

A main goal for the scientists at the NIH is, “to understand what’s working, what’s not and how can we improve things if there were to be a larger scale rollout of this program,” he added.

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(NEW YORK) — Gov. Kathy Hochul announced Tuesday that New York will invest $1 billion to address mental health needs.

Hochul laid out her plans for addressing the mental health care system in a speech at the Assembly Chambers in Albany on Tuesday afternoon.

“When it comes to keeping people safe and protecting their well-being, fixing New York’s mental health care system is essential — and long overdue,” the governor said at the State of the State address.

According to Hochul, over 3,000 New Yorkers experiencing “severe mental illness or addiction” live on the city’s streets and in their subways, and there aren’t enough inpatient psychiatric beds and outpatient services.

As part of her plan, New York will add 1,000 inpatient psychiatric beds, provide funds for 150 new beds in state-run facilities and add 850 psychiatric beds back to hospitals. This accounts for over half the beds the state lost since 2014, Hochul said.

“I’m declaring that the era of ignoring the needs of these individuals is over. Because our success as government leaders is measured by our ability to lift up and support all our constituents,” she said.

New York also plans to build more than 3,500 housing units offering mental health services.

Rates of mental illnesses in the state has been on the rise and the problem was only exacerbated because of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Hochul.

A coalition of pediatric groups declared children’s mental health challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic a “national emergency” in October 2021.

“Young people have endured so much throughout this pandemic and while much of the attention is often placed on its physical health consequences, we cannot overlook the escalating mental health crisis facing our patients,” Dr. Lee Savio Beers, American Academy of Pediatrics president, told ABC News in a statement at the time.

Hochul said New York plans to “reduce unmet mental health needs among children by at least half in the next five years.”

“Whether we’re talking about a child with behavioral challenges or an adult suffering from depression, no one should go without a screening or a doctor’s appointment or counseling,” the governor said. “And cost should never be a barrier.”

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(NEW YORK) — The nurses strike in New York City has extended into its second day with more than 7,000 walking out of two major hospitals.

Nurses at Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx and Mount Sinai Hospital in Harlem say that low pay, lack of staffing and unsafe working conditions are burning out hospital employees and putting patients at risk.

“Can’t stop, won’t stop until we get a fair contract!” the New York State Nurses Association tweeted Monday night, announcing that the picket line would continue into Tuesday.

The hospitals have been forced to divert ambulances to other medical centers, postpone non-elective surgeries and call in temporary staffers, but the nurses say they’ve been pushed to the brink.

“There’s multiple reasons for why we all need to be paying attention,” Gretchen Purser, an associate professor of sociology and a labor expert at Syracuse University’s Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, told ABC News. “Nurses are really bargaining for the collective good. They are putting, first and foremost, patients’ safety above all else and that was the breaking point — they’ve been working under less-than-ideal conditions that jeopardized the safety of patients.”

One of the nurses’ biggest grievances is the nurse-to-patient ratio, which measures how many patients a nurse is responsible for, at a hospital.

Research has shown that when staffing levels are high and nurses are only taking care of a few patients, there is a lower risk of patients dying as well as a lower risk of infections, medication errors, ulcers and hospital-acquired pneumonia.

What’s more, patients are more likely to have shorter stays when there are more nurses, officials said.

One New York State analysis, conducted in 2021, estimated adequate nursing staff levels could save 4,370 lives and $720 million over a two-year period due to shorter hospital stays and fewer readmissions.

The nurses say the hospitals are supposed to have low nurse-to-patient ratios, but they often end up being much higher.

Marcelo Cantu, a nurse at Montefiore for 19 years, who works in the cardiothoracic unit, told ABC News every nurse is supposed to have three patients, but can often end up with four or five due to staffing shortages. He said even one extra patient can affect the level of care.

“Our patients require a lot of time — we’re not only monitoring their recovery but teaching them how to physically recover from what they’ve been through, teaching them about their new medications, teaching them about lifestyle changes,” he said. “We’ve had to learn how to prioritize and because we’re working short, sometimes the quality suffers and that’s very difficult to deal with.”

Montefiore said it is offering a 19.1% compounded wage increase over the next three years with pay increases for each level of experience.

What’s more, the hospital has also offered to add 115 registered nursing positions to the emergency department, 11 registered nursing to the labor and delivery department and 23 nurse practitioner positions.

Mount Sinai told ABC News in a statement it also offered a 19.1% increased wage proposal, but those nurses rejected the offer.

The nurses argue that the pay increase is not the main reason for the strike but rather the current contract does not address nurse-to-patient ratios.

“I’ll be the first to say a nurse deserves a fair compensation,” Cantu said. “But it’s not about money, it’s about the allocation of that money in order to provide better care.”

He continued, “It’s frustrating and heartbreaking when we fall short in areas not critical to their life but critical to the patients’ experience. These are human beings, not just a list of symptoms in front of us.”

Labor and economic experts say that when nurses go on strike, the stakes are not just high for them but also for the community at large as well.

“All of us are either going to need care in a hospital or have loved ones who need care in a hospital and its nurses who are the frontlines of that,” Purser said.

“We need nurses to be able to do their jobs properly because if we get sick or we’re older, and we’re at our most vulnerable or disabled, that’s when we need a nurse,” Joelle Leclaire, an associate professor of economics and finance at SUNY Buffalo State, told ABC News. “If we can’t have proper nursing ratios, fewer of us are actually going to be able to overcome conditions that affect our well-being in our health.”

She added that’s an economic impact as well because nurses are not getting paid their full wages when they’re on strike.

“If they’re not being paid now that they’re striking, and the longer that they strike, that money doesn’t go back into the economy,” Leclaire said. “So that’s another piece of it, too, which granted is smaller, but it’s still a piece.”

Montefiore said it has since introduced several new offers, including establishing average patient ratio, to end the strike.

“Montefiore remains at the bargaining table, committed to an equitable agreement that reflects the priorities of our dedicated nurses. Contingency plans remain in place to ensure our hospitals remain open, because Montefiore is, and always will be, here for The Bronx,” a statement released Tuesday read.

ABC News’ Sasha Pezenik, Nicole Wetsman and Youri Benadjaoud contributed to this report.

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(NEW YORK) — Opening statements in the federal trial of a Manhattan, New York obstetrician/gynecologist charged with sexually abusing female patients highlighted a rare but devastating type of sexual misconduct — that of a patient by a medical professional.

Robert Hadden, a former obstetrician/gynecologist at Columbia University and New York-Presbyterian Hospital, pled guilty to abusing patients in 2016, but avoided jail time in a controversial deal with the Manhattan District Attorney’s office.

Now, he’s on trial over federal charges. He pled not guilty to the federal charges, which accuse him of enticing women to cross state lines in order to sexually abuse them. His defense called it a “technical crime.”

Obstetricians and gynecologists regularly perform sensitive examinations when patients are emotionally and physically vulnerable. Those exams are medically important, which is why experts say abuse during such procedures is an egregious breach of trust — in addition to violation of physician ethics and also a criminal act.

“Although sexual misconduct is uncommon in clinical care, even one episode is unacceptable,” Dr. Kavita Shah Arora, chair of the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology (ACOG) committee on ethics, said in an email to ABC News.

Health care providers should always fully explain all medical exams and only perform them with the patient’s consent, ACOG said in its position statement on sexual misconduct. Providers should use the minimal amount of physical contact necessary for the exam and a chaperone should always be in the room for all breast, genital and rectal examinations — regardless of the gender of the patient or health care provider, the group said.

The American Medical Association code of medical ethics recommends that health care providers make chaperones available during exams.

“In my entire career I never examined a patient without my nurse in the room,” says ABC News chief medical correspondent Dr. Jen Ashton, who is also a board-certified obstetrician and gynecologist. “That is for both the patient’s and the doctor’s protection.”

Patients can always ask to see a doctor or care provider of the gender they’re most comfortable with, the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network (RAINN) says in its guidelines on sexual abuse by medical professionals. They can also ask for a friend or family member to stay in the room during any type of exam, not just gynecologic exams, RAINN says.

RAINN says that it’s unacceptable for providers to refuse to answer questions, conduct exams without gloves, prevent others from coming into the room with a patient, insist on seeing body parts they’re not examining, or ask questions that make a patient uncomfortable.

Patients can also end an exam at any time and leave the room, Ashton says.

“If it feels wrong, trust your instincts and sit up — and end the exam,” Ashton says. “Gynecological exams, done properly, take seconds, not minutes — and they definitely don’t feel sexual.”

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(NEW YORK) — More schools across the United States are putting mask mandates in place as COVID-19 cases continue to rise.

Before winter break, districts in New Jersey and Pennsylvania announced they would temporarily be requiring masks among students and staff members amid a surge of respiratory illnesses.

Now schools in Massachusetts and Michigan are following suit while Chicago schools are asking students to take rapid tests before classes start.

Chelsea Public Schools in Boston announced in a letter to the community that the decision was due to Suffolk County designated as “high risk” for COVID-19 transmission as defined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“As a result of this designation, Chelsea Public Schools will implement a mask mandate, effective on Monday, January 9,” Superintendent Dr. Almi G. Abeyta wrote in the letter. “Masks must be worn in school buildings at all times except when eating or drinking…Mask wearing will continue to remain mandatory for any person visiting our school health offices, and anyone returning to school from a five-day quarantine following a positive COVID-19 diagnosis.”

The letter did not state for how long the mandate would be in place.

Meanwhile, Ann Arbor Public Schools in Michigan said it was instituting a two-week mandate starting Monday, Jan. 9, and ending Friday, Jan. 20.

According to local affiliate WXYZ-TV, the decision comes after a wave of respiratory illnesses led to at least five school closures in December alone.

“The Ann Arbor Public Schools will require well-fitting masks to be worn by students, staff and visitors while indoors in AAPS schools, beginning on January 9th and during the first two weeks following the winter break,” Superintendent Jeanice Kerr Swift wrote in a letter to families, students and staff. “Extra masks are available at all school buildings for use by students and staff.”

Additionally, Chicago Public Schools announced it is asking students and employees to perform a rapid at-home COVID-19 test before entering classrooms.

‘In order to keep our school communities safe, please test for COVID-19 before returning to school,” the notice read. “If you test positive, please report the positive test using the COVID-19 Self-Reporting Form, and follow the guidance outlined on our safety page.”

Data from the CDC shows that COVID-19 cases are increasing even as cases of RSV and influenza are trending downward.

Weekly cases have risen from 309,253 for the week of Nov. 30 to 470,699 for the week of Jan. 4, data shows.

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(NEW YORK) — Did you know that working out in old sneakers can do more harm to your body than good?

According to podiatrist Dr. Priya Parthasarathy, you should test your sneakers to see if it is time for new ones.

“Most experts say [you should replace shoes after every] 300 to 500 miles, but most people don’t keep track of the mileage they put on their sneakers,” Parthasarathy told “Good Morning America.”

“I tell my patients to try to twist or fold your shoe in half like a sandwich. If you are able to do that or come close to it, then it is time to replace your sneakers. With a new supportive sneaker there should be some give near the forefoot but it definitely should not be able to fold in half,” Parthasarathy added.

Time for a new pair? Consult Parthasarathy’s checklist below before buying:

•     Make sure you cannot bend the shoe in half.
•     Check that the heel counter is firm for support.
•     Pick a shoe with removable inserts.
•     The shape of the shoe should fit your foot not vice versa.
•     Check support levels. Shoe brands typically offer different levels of support: stability, neutral or over supinator.
•     Get evaluated by a podiatrist if you don’t know your foot type.

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(NEW YORK) — The ketogenic, or keto, diet is one of the well-known diets out there, but a simplified version of the high fat, low carbohydrate diet is gaining in popularity too.

With “lazy keto”, the name of the simplified version, people just count their carbohydrates, and skip the detailed counting of macronutrients, or macros — fats, carbohydrates and proteins.

“People are very interested in keto and have heard success stories about it,” said Dawn Jackson Blatner, a registered dietitian nutritionist. “And this is the variation that tries to make it more doable for the everyday person.”

Here are five things to know about the buzzy way of eating:

1. Lazy keto dieters start by setting a daily carb limit.

Based on the rules of the keto diet, the total number of carbohydrate grams per day should be 5 to 10% of your calories, according to Blatner.

On a 2,000 calorie diet, example, it would be 25 to 50 grams of carbs per day. Carbs on the keto diet are typically counted as net carbs, so total carb grams minus the grams of fiber in a serving.

Most people following a lazy keto diet typically set a limit of 25 to 50 grams of carbs of per day, according to Blatner.

For reference, people following a strict keto diet and counting all of their macros typically aim for a range of 60 to 75% fat, 15 to 30% protein and 5 to 10% carbohydrates, based on total caloric intake, explained Blatner.

2. Lazy keto will not put you into ketosis.

The keto diet is designed to get your body into a state called ketosis whereby your body is so low on carbohydrates, which both make glucose, that it starts burning fat for fuel.

Ketosis also occurs in the body during fasting.

When you are on the lazy keto diet and not counting exactly how much protein and fat you are eating, you may eat too much protein, which will prevent you from going into ketosis, according to Blatner.

“Does that really matter? Not really,” she said. “People who are cutting their carbs so dramatically and paying attention so specifically to their diet still end up losing weight and feeling better, but they may just not do it with the actual ketosis.”

Blatner recommends just eyeballing protein sizes on the lazy keto diet to make sure the portion is not too much.

“You’re looking for the moderate, palm of hand protein portion sizes,” she said.

3. ‘Lazy keto’ is not the same as ‘dirty keto.’

“Lazy [keto] means you’re taking the easy approach to the counting of macros,” said Blatner. “Dirty [keto] is when people are eating [high-fat foods] like fast food and bacon and not caring so much about the quality of food.”

4. Carbs are still important on the lazy keto diet.

Carbohydrates include not just bread and potato chips but also more nutritious foods like fruits and vegetables, lentils, whole grains, beans and dairy.

“Carbs can do a body good if you choose the right ones,” said Blatner. “The good ones can do a lot for your gut health, your immunity, your mood and they can do a lot for disease-free, strong, healthy selves.”

People who lower their carb intake need to make sure the carbs they are taking in are the ones that are good for them, like leafy green vegetables and berries and whole grains.

“When you cut carbs so low, if you are not very cautious about how you are spending your carbs, you could wind up with some pretty low nutrition,” said Blatner. “So be aware that if you’re going to cut carbs, make sure that you’re spending them on the healthiest carbs that you can be and make sure that you’re adding those nutritious [fruits and vegetables] every day.”

5. Lazy keto is a diet that needs to be done carefully, ideally with expert advice.

People should always consult with a healthcare provider before starting a new diet, especially one like the lazy keto diet that drops carb intake so severely for most people and risks changing a person’s nutritional intake.

Blatner said she does not recommend the lazy keto diet to her clients. She does though encourage people who bring up the diet themselves, in hopes it will excite them into a wellness change.

“I don’t preach this but if it’s done responsibly and it makes somebody excited and excited to care about what they’re eating, I’m all for it,” Blatner said of lazy keto. “And it is true that pretty much everyone should get on the bandwagon that your carbs are too much and we’re eating bad versions of [carbs].”

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(NEW YORK) — Amid the influx of messages on weight loss and change and resolutions that come with the New Year, one woman is sending a different message.

Sarah Nicole Landry, a mom of four, took to Instagram to remind her followers that the first day of a new year is just another day to love yourself.

“Jan 1 will change nothing, except another day to choose love, another day to show up. Nourish her. Move her. Clothe her,” Landry wrote, in part. “Another day to get to live in *this* body. However she gifts me that day.”

Landry, whose message received over 100,000 likes, said she wanted to remind people that focusing on losing weight or forcing yourself to change because of the date on a calendar is a “distraction from the good parts of life.”

“My hope is that people feel a sense of relief, that they don’t have to change their bodies to be confident,” Landry told ABC News’ Good Morning America. “That they don’t have to get on another [diet] program that will statistically fail for them.”

Landry, the founder of The Birds Papaya, a lifestyle brand, said she wrote her Instagram message from experience, having lost about 100 pounds over two years ago.

Around the time Landry neared the end of her weight loss journey, she became pregnant. As a result, she said she has been a “spectrum of sizes” over the years.

At all different sizes, Landry said she used to believe that she would “be happy and live my life” once she lost weight.

Once she lost the weight, Landry said she realized that happiness doesn’t just appear.

“When that confidence and happiness wasn’t there for me at the end of losing 100 pounds, I realized that I really only have the choice to show up each and every day,” Landry said. “I understand now that my confidence and my enjoyment in life comes from making these decisions every day to show up and acknowledging that my body is going to change sizes up and down a bunch of times over.”

Landry wrote in her Instagram post that she has come to terms with not knowing whether she’ll ever be content in her body.

“Thin or thick, it feels weird to try. It’s changing as we speak. It’ll do so a thousand times over,” she wrote. “But I’m here right now. And that says something. Right? I’ve accomplished more by actively leaning into the now instead of shaming it and chasing tomorrow.”

Landry explained that she has learned to cope with being in the “middle” by making “loving decisions” for her body.

“I’m kind of stuck in the middle of I don’t really have those amazing feelings about my body, and I also know that weight loss doesn’t answer my problems,” Landry said. “So what can I do today to love myself? What kind of movement do I enjoy? What kind at foods are good for me and fuel me and make me feel happy?”

She continued, “I go and make those loving decisions for myself each and every day.”

As an influencer with more than two million followers on Instagram, Landry said she makes a conscious decision daily to “show up as I am.”

“I understand that people are watching and they’re seeing what I’m doing and they know I’m not comfortable in my body, but they’re watching me step out on runways, go to swim shoots, doing all these things,” Landry said. “Internally there’s a whole big part of me that says, ‘You could look better before going to do that,’ but instead I’m saying, ‘I only have this shot right now and there’s a runway in front of me and so what if I step out onto it as I am in this exact moment.'”

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(COLUMBIA, S.C.) — South Carolina’s Supreme Court struck down the state’s six-week abortion ban Thursday, claiming it violates the state’s constitution.

The 2021 so-called “heartbeat act” bans abortions after fetal cardiac activity is detected, which is typically around six weeks, before most women know they are pregnant. It included exceptions for rape, incest and if the mother’s life is in danger.

The ban had previously been [suspended] by federal courts, but took effect after the Supreme Court voted to overturn Roe v. Wade this summer. The ban was temporarily blocked in August while the state’s Supreme Court heard the case.

In a 3-2 ruling, the court agreed with the plaintiffs — which included Planned Parenthood South Atlantic — and said the ban violated a patient’s right to privacy.

“We hold that the decision to terminate a pregnancy rests upon the utmost personal and private considerations imaginable, and implicates a woman’s right to privacy,” Justice Kaye Hearn wrote in the majority opinion. “While this right is not absolute and must be balanced against the State’s interest in protecting unborn life, this Act, which severely limits — and in many instances completely forecloses — abortion, is an unreasonable restriction upon a woman’s right to privacy.”

The two justices who voted to uphold the ban said the right to privacy in the state’s constitution only applies to searches and seizures.

“The court’s decision means that our patients can continue to come to us, their trusted health care providers, to access abortion and other essential health services in South Carolina,” Jenny Black, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood South Atlantic said in a statement.

Karine Jean-Pierre, White House press secretary commended the decision and wrote in a tweet that the White House is “encouraged by South Carolina’s Supreme Court ruling today on the state’s extreme and dangerous abortion ban. Women should be able to make their own decisions about their bodies.”

However, conservatives, including Governor Henry McMaster — who signed the original ban into law — blasted the justices for their ruling.

“Our State Supreme Court has found a right in our Constitution which was never intended by the people of South Carolina,” he tweeted. “With this opinion, the Court has clearly exceeded its authority. The people have spoken through their elected representatives multiple times on this issue.”

McMaster added, “I look forward to working with the General Assembly to correct this error.”

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