(LITTLE ROCK, Ark.) — Dr. Janet Cathey, the lead physician at the Planned Parenthood in Little Rock, Arkansas, said her team spent weeks prepping for the end of legal abortions in her state in anticipation of the Supreme Court striking down Roe v. Wade, but she still couldn’t quite wrap her head around how quickly it all ended with the ruling Friday morning.
“I just thought we’d have Friday and Saturday,” she told ABC News’ “Start Here” podcast. “I was just banking [on it]. I told patients, ‘you’ve got to get in here. If you get in here this week, I think we’ll be OK.'”
Arkansas was one of the first states to trigger its “trigger law,” which outlawed the vast majority of abortions in the state, just hours after the court made its decision on June 24.
The Little Rock Planned Parenthood scheduled its first appointment that day at 10 a.m., but within minutes patients were being told their appointments were canceled.
Despite all the news about Roe being potentially overturned, many of the patients weren’t looped into the news enough to know this possibility was even on the radar, according to Cathey.
“We had patients that we called that said, ‘No, I’m almost there. I’m in my car,'” she said. “Most of them are just young people that are just trying to go to school, and live their lives, and take care of their kids.”
Cathey said she fears that women who are seeking abortions will have to struggle more and live with long-lasting repercussions as the number of legal clinics and facilities are shut down throughout the South.
Anyone who performs or attempts to perform an abortion can be charged with a felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $100,000, under the Arkansas Human Life Protection Act. The law provides an exception for when the patient’s life is in danger but does not provide exceptions for rape or incest.
Cathey, who took ABC News on a tour of her facility’s empty rooms Sunday, said that she saw more patients come out of neighboring states that enacted strict abortion bans in the lead-up to the Supreme Court case. Now, those patients will have to travel farther, and in some cases take a plane to seek a safe, legal abortion.
“Imagine a teenager trying to navigate this system,” she said. “The laws are very confusing. The news is very confusing. I think a lot of women are not going to know where they can go,”
Cathey added that many patients expressed concerns that they might be arrested or prosecuted for crossing state lines to get an abortion.
Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge, who put the law into effect on Friday, told ABC News’ “Start Here” that her message to patients looking to seek legal abortion in her state is, “if they’re not ready to be a mom then to be responsible.”
She acknowledged that victims of sexual assault don’t choose to become pregnant, but defended penalties for administering an abortion for those women, contending “we hurt for those women” but “those children and those individuals had the opportunity to live and for the women to punish an innocent life because some cruel evil person hurt her and harmed her…two wrongs don’t make a right, as they say.”
Rutledge said that she would focus on providing more resources to support the adoption of those babies, but didn’t give specifics. Cathey and abortion rights proponents have criticized what they see as a lack of a safety net for those forced to carry a baby to term.
Rutledge said that she would focus on providing more resources to support the adoption of those babies, but didn’t give specifics.
The attorney general declined to discuss the possibility of criminalizing Arkansas residents who travel out of state to get an abortion, claiming “that’s a conversation that we will be having at statehouses across the country.”
Sitting in an empty examination room that will no longer be used for abortion services, Cathey blinked back tears, describing patients who suddenly don’t know if their next move will break a law.
“It’s any range of emotions. Some of them were patients who were mad and there were patients who cried,” she said.
“That there’s going to be a fear. It’s going to be a public health issue,” Cathy added.
This report was featured in the Monday, June 27, 2022, episode of “Start Here,” ABC News’ daily news podcast.
(WASHINGTON) — The shooting occurred early Sunday at a private venue in South Tacoma, where a large crowd was gathering.
A Texas trail ride, a barbecue in New York City and a stone bridge in Minneapolis were among the settings for at least 10 mass shootings that erupted across the country between Friday and late Sunday, marking the fifth consecutive weekend U.S. law enforcement officers have responded to multiple incidents, each involving four or more victims shot.
Combined, the shootings this weekend left at least seven people dead and 46 injured, according to the Gun Violence Archive, a site that tracks shootings across the country. The website defines a mass shooting as a single incident involving four or more victims, which differs from the FBI’s definition as a single incident in which four or more people, not including the suspect, are killed.
The string of consecutive weekend mass-casualty incidents began over the Memorial Day holiday, when at least 17 shootings left a total of 13 dead and 79 injured in cities across the country.
The shootings come in the wake of a May 14 mass shooting at a Buffalo, New York, supermarket that left 10 people dead and three wounded and the May 24 massacre at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, that left 19 students and two teachers dead.
7 shot, 1 fatally, in Georgia town
One person was killed and six were injured when gunfire broke out early Sunday in a crowded business district of Blakely, Georgia, authorities said.
Police officers were patrolling an entertainment district of Blakely, a small southwest Georgia city of about 5,000 residents, when they heard numerous gunshots around 12:45 a.m., the Blakely Police Department said in a statement. The officers rushed to the gunfire, found several victims suffering from gunshot wounds and began providing first aid, police said.
One mortally wounded victim was taken to Lifebrite Community Hospital, where the individual was pronounced dead, police said.
Other victims were hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries.
“The shooting occurred in the densely crowded area of the nightclubs and food establishments on N. Church St.,” according to the police statement. “There were dozens of individuals who would have witnessed this incident and then left the area.”
No arrests have been announced. The Blakely Police Department is asking for anyone who witnessed the incident to “come forward and provide crucial information about this senseless crime.”
A motive for the shooting is under investigation.
8 shot at Tacoma, Washington, rave
At least eight people were injured early Sunday when gunfire erupted outside a rave in Tacoma, Washington, police said.
The shooting occurred at 12:45 a.m. at a private venue in South Tacoma, where police said the rave attracted a large crowd.
A barrage of gunfire erupted during an argument that broke out in an alley behind the venue, according to police.
The victims appear to have all suffered non-life-threatening injuries and were hospitalized in stable condition, the Tacoma Police Department said in a statement.
No arrests have been announced.
8-year-old among 4 shot at New York City barbecue
An 8-year-old boy was among four people shot Saturday night while attending a barbecue outside a residential building in New York City when two gunmen on a scooter pulled up and opened fire on the group, according to police.
Investigators suspect the victims were all innocent bystanders, authorities said.
The shooting erupted around 11:30 p.m. in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn, according to the New York Police Department.
A group of people were barbecuing in the courtyard of a building when they were shot, according to police.
The child was grazed in the leg by bullet, authorities said.
Three adults — a 27-year-old man and two women, ages 35 and 46 — all suffered gunshot wounds to the legs, police said.
The victims were all treated at Kings County Hospital in Brooklyn.
No arrests have been announced and police were working Monday to identify suspects.
4 shot, 1 fatally, outside in San Antonio, Texas, nightclub
One person was killed and three others were injured when a shooting occurred early Sunday outside a San Antonio, Texas, nightclub, marking the second straight weekend police in the city have investigated a mass-casualty shooting.
Sunday’s shooting occurred around 2:30 a.m. in the parking lot of the Manhattan Nightclub, according to the San Antonio Police Department.
The shooting happened after a disturbance inside the nightclub spilled outside, police said.
The name of the victim who was killed was not immediately released. Three others suffered non-life-threatening injuries in the episode.
No arrests were made.
The mass-casualty shooting came a week after five people were injured in a drive-by shooting in San Antonio that targeted a group of people having a barbecue outside a home, police said. No arrests have been announced in the June 18 shooting.
Street shooting in Paterson, New Jersey, leaves 5 injured
At least five people were injured, including three teenagers, when a shooting erupted early Sunday on a street in Paterson, New Jersey, police said.
Police said the victims were standing on a street corner at the intersection of Madison and Essex streets when gunfire broke out.
A 17-year-old boy and four men, including two 19-year-olds, were taken to Saint Joseph’s University Medical Center, where they were all treated for non-life-threatening gunshot wounds, according to a statement from the Passaic County Prosecutor’s Office.
A motive for the shooting is under investigation. No arrests have been announced.
5 shot, 1 critically injured, at Texas trail ride and concert
A shootout between groups attending an organized trail ride and concert Sunday in Winona, Texas, left five people injured, authorities said.
The shooting occurred despite private security collecting firearms from attendees as they entered the event, which was held in a large pasture and billed by organizers as “a trail ride, ATV ride and horse show,” the Smith County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement.
A preliminary investigation showed a shooting initially erupted after a fight broke out near the event’s concert stage.
“Witnesses related that after the initial shooting that some of the groups ran and took their firearms back,” according to the sheriff’s office statement. “Subsequently, a second shooting took place in the area.”
The shooting remains under investigation and no arrests were announced.
One man was shot in the face and airlifted to a hospital in nearby Tyler, Texas, where he was in critical condition, the sheriff’s office said.
Four other injured people were treated at hospitals for non-life-threatening injuries and released, the sheriff’s office said.
The trail ride was organized by a group called the Unified Elite Trail Riderzz, which could not be reached for comment. The group posted a message on its Facebook page on Sunday, saying, “Unified Elite Trail Riderzz would like to send prayers out to families and friends involved in the incident from last night.”
8 shot, one fatally, at party in Sutherlin, Virginia
A 20-year-old man was killed and seven other people were injured when gunfire erupted at a party in Sutherlin, Virginia, early Sunday that was attended by more than 100 revelers, according to police.
“We’re going to do everything we can to bring justice to that family and to the other victims in this case,” Pittsylvania County Sheriff Mike Taylor said at a news conference.
The shooting unfolded about 1:30 a.m. in the rural community about 70 miles south of Lynchburg, Taylor said.
The man killed in the shooting was identified as Jerome Jahiem White, according to ABC affiliate station WSET in Lynchburg.
A motive for the shooting remains under investigation. No arrests have been made.
Taylor said investigators suspect that more than one shooter was involved.
Taylor asked that anyone who was at the party to contact police immediately.
“For the life of me, if I had a loved one who was at a party and was shot or hurt, if I had information, I would surely get that to the proper authorities,” Taylor said. “I can’t answer why people won’t cooperate.”
4 people shot near Minneapolis’ Stone Arch Bridge
Four people were injured, including three teenagers, when a shooting erupted Saturday at the Stone Arch Bridge near downtown Minneapolis, police said.
Minneapolis police officers responded to reports of multiple shots being fired at one end of the bridge and arrived to find a “chaotic scene” with fights breaking out among a large crowd gathered there, according to the Minneapolis Police Department.
After getting the crowd under control, officers found four people shot, including a man in his 30s who was shot in the head and taken to a hospital in critical condition, according to police. Three teenagers, including a 17-year-old girl, were also taken to hospitals with non-life-threatening injuries, police said.
A motive for the shooting is under investigation.
Detectives found multiple shell casings at the scene, leading them to believe a rifle and a pistol were used in the shooting.
Witnesses told police that a possible suspect fled the area in a white Dodge Charger.
No arrests have been announced.
4 teenagers shot, two killed, at Houston home
Four teenagers were shot inside a home during an argument between two groups of young people in Houston early Saturday morning, police said.
The shooting unfolded around 1:35 a.m. at a home in the South Acres neighborhood of southeast Houston, Assistant Chief Ban Tien of the Houston Police Department said at a news conference.
Tien said about nine or 10 people were gathered at the home when a second group arrived and “some sort of argument or disturbance escalated into a shooting.”
He said a motive for the deadly confrontation is under investigation.
Officers who went to the home found two teenagers, a 17-year-old and an 18-year-old, both suffering from bullet wounds to the torso. The two teenagers, whose names have not been released, were pronounced dead at the scene.
Two other teenagers, one 17 and the other 18, were taken to hospitals. Their conditions were not released.
No arrests have been made in the shooting.
“It appears they are all acquaintances. They know each other,” Tien said. “At this time, we don’t know if they were invited or uninvited. But that will be part of the investigation.”
Several guns were recovered from the home, police said.
14-year-old killed in shooting in Hopewell, Virginia
Two teenagers, including a 14-year-old boy, were killed and two other juveniles were injured in a shooting Friday night in Hopewell, Virginia, police said.
The shooting happened about 10:30 p.m. near some railroad tracks in the Richmond, Virginia, suburb.
Police officers responded to reports of a shooting around 10:30 p.m. and discovered two victims lying on the railroad tracks suffering from gunshot wounds, officials said. They were pronounced dead at the scene.
The two other teenagers were hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries.
No arrests were announced and a motive remains under investigation.
Police identified the two slain teenagers as 14-year-old Micah Coles of Hopewell and 18-year-old Jasir Culver of Petersburg, Virginia.
(MENDON, Mo.) — About eight cars of an Amtrak train derailed after hitting a dump truck at a public crossing in Mendon, Missouri, according to Amtrak and the Missouri State Highway Patrol.
Injuries have been reported but it was not immediately clear how many, Amtrak said.
Passenger Rob Nightingale, 58, told ABC News Live his car tipped to the side and he climbed through a window to escape. He said he saw a little girl crying and her family trying to comfort her.
Nightingale said he saw some people covered in blood.
The train was en route from Los Angeles to Chicago with 243 passengers on board at the time of the crash, which took place at about 1:42 p.m. local time, Amtrak said.
Missouri Public Safety officials, highway patrol troopers and other personnel are responding, Gov. Mike Parson tweeted.
Mendon is about 100 miles northeast of Kansas City, Missouri.
This comes one day after an Amtrak train collided with a car in California, killing three people.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(NEW YORK) — This Fourth of July is expected to be the second-busiest for travel since 2000, with 47.9 million Americans taking trips, according to AAA.
Here’s what to know before you head to the airport or hit the highways.
Air travel
Friday, July 1 is shaping up to be the busiest day for air travel during the holiday weekend. Monday, July 4 will likely be the lightest, according to AAA booking data.
The top domestic destinations for the holiday this year are: Orlando; Seattle; New York; Anaheim, California; Anchorage, Alaska; Ft. Lauderdale; Las Vegas; Honolulu; Denver; and Chicago, according to AAA.
Fourth of July airfare is up 45% compared to 2019, now at an average of $437 for a domestic roundtrip, according to Hopper.
But the best prices for domestic trips can be found with a quick weekend trip, flying on Saturday, July 2 and returning on Monday, July 4, according to Hopper.
Road travel
The afternoons of Thursday, June 30 and Friday, July 1 are anticipated to be the most crowded days on the road as commuters leave work early and mix with holiday travelers, according to AAA.
If you’re going to brave the roads on Friday, before 10 a.m. or after 9 p.m. is best, according to analytics company INRIX. On Thursday, before 7 a.m. or after 8 p.m. is best.
July 3 and July 4 are expected to be the best days for traffic, according to INRIX.
(NEW YORK) — The heat is on this summer, and it’s forecast to stay that way.
Millions of Americans had already been given a taste of sweltering temperatures by the time the summer solstice — the longest day of the year and the official start of the summer season — arrived last week.
A reprieve from the heat is likely not coming, forecasts into the coming months show.
Following back-to-back dangerous heat waves that impacted a large swath of the nation over the past two weeks, much of the country will be bracing for more rounds of intense heat as summer continues.
The final days of June and first days of July will likely bring above-average temperatures along the Gulf Coast, with building heat in the West. Rounds of intense summer heat and longer-duration heat waves will be likely over the next couple of weeks and heading through the month of July, according to long-range weather forecast models monitored by meteorologists.
Odds favor above-average temperatures across much of the South and along the East Coast, according to the latest July outlook issued by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Climate Prediction Center. While there will be breaks in the heat from time to time, more rounds of prolonged, dangerous heat will be more likely in these areas — which have already experienced triple-digit temperatures — heading into the middle of summer.
The Midwest, which saw some of the highest temperatures during the most recent heat waves, will be one of the few regions to experience relief from the heat in the coming days.
Heat is the No. 1 weather-related killer. On average, more people in the U.S. die from extreme heat than any other severe weather event, including tornados, hurricanes and flooding combined, according to the National Weather Service.
Vulnerable populations, including impoverished and marginalized communities and those with pre-existing health conditions such as asthma and heart disease, are most at risk when temperatures begin to skyrocket, Ladd Keith, an assistant professor in the School of Landscape Architecture and Planning at the University of Arizona, told ABC News.
“With climate change, we’ve already seen the number of heat waves increase,” he said. “In the 1960s, they were occurring twice per year. And we’ve already seen that increase to six times a decade in the last decade.”
As the heat index increased, cities all over the country began offering heat management strategies such as cooling and hydration centers. In Tennessee, utility company Middle Tennessee Electric even suspended disconnections for non-payment until at least July 6 amid the forecast for scorching temperatures.
Cities tend to be hotter than their natural surroundings because of the heat island effect caused by buildings, roads and other infrastructure, which absorb and re-emit the sun’s heat more than a natural landscape, Keith said. This is why is it important for cities to also implement heat mitigation strategies, such as planting trees, increase vegetation, and use cool pavements and cool roofs during new construction, he said.
“Just the average temperatures that are rising due to climate change — and how we built our cities — can expose people to unsafe temperatures throughout the summer season, particularly for historically hotter states,” Keith said. “And so that’s a concern, because it could certainly lead to things like dehydration, heat, heat exhaustion and up to heatstroke.”
Heat severity in urban areas is “drastic and inequitably distributed,” Keith said. Lower-income, marginalized minority neighborhoods are physically hotter because they have less vegetation, and they have less public investment that’s historically connected to those locations, he added.
In addition, a lot of critical urban infrastructure and systems, such as industry, airports and transportation hubs, are typically located in lower-income areas “intentionally,” Keith said.
“So that physically makes those places hotter, so they’re exposed to more heat just by where they live,” he said.
Combine that with the inability to access health care or afford basic utilities such as air conditioning, and people’s health can succumb to the heat, Keith said.
The heat and megadrought are becoming such a concern in the West that the city of Los Angeles named its first-ever chief heat officer earlier this month, while the Federal Emergency Management Agency has identified Los Angeles County as the nation’s most vulnerable county to heat waves.
Despite cities being hotter, there are actually more heat-related hospitalizations in rural regions, likely due to the types of occupations those residents hold and their travel patterns, Keith said.
The next heat wave is forecast to also hit the Pacific Northwest, a region that experienced triple-digit temperatures twice in 2021 — something that would have been unheard of two decades ago.
It is estimated that about 1,400 people in the U.S. and Canada died as a result of that heat wave.
“There’s just a less visible risk, and it kind of hides some of those deaths, unfortunately,” Keith said.
(BRENTWOOD, Calif.) — Three people are dead and two others seriously injured after an Amtrak train collided with a car in Brentwood, California, on Sunday, the East Contra Costa Fire Department told ABC News San Francisco station KGO.
The two people who were wounded, including a child, suffered serious injuries and were both sent to John Muir Medical Center, according to officials.
It’s unclear how many people were on the train.
Fire department officials said they have been called out to that train crossing up to twice a year because there isn’t a traffic guard at that location.
(TACOMA, Wash.) — At least eight people were injured early Sunday when gunfire broke out at a dance party being held in an industrial area of Tacoma, Washington, police said.
The shooting occurred at 12:45 a.m. at a private venue in South Tacoma, where police said the rave attracted a large crowd.
A barrage of gunfire erupted during an argument that broke out in an alley behind the venue, located in an area filled with mostly car dealerships and auto repair shops, according to police.
Police immediately closed streets around the crime scene as officers and paramedics responded and began treating the wounded.
There were no immediate reports of fatalities and no arrests were immediately announced.
The victims appear to have all suffered non-life-threatening injuries and were hospitalized in stable condition, the Tacoma Police Department said in a statement.
Officers responded to the scene after multiple 911 callers reported shots being fired at the rave.
“Officers arrived to find a chaotic scene with a large crowd and multiple shooting victims,” according to the police statement.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(NEW YORK) — Jeffery Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell has been put on suicide watch days before her sentencing on five criminal counts, including sex trafficking, according to her lawyer.
She is awaiting sentencing, ahead of Tuesday morning’s hearing, at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn.
“Yesterday, without having conducted a psychological evaluation and without justification, the MDC placed Ms. Maxwell on suicide watch,” her lawyer, Bobbi Sternheim, wrote to a federal court in New York on Saturday. “She is not permitted to possess and review legal documents and is not permitted paper or pen. This has prevented her from preparing for sentencing.”
Nearly three years ago, her accomplice, Jeffery Epstein was found dead by suicide at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan. The federal government announced last year that MCC would close due to its poor conditions.
Maxwell’s lawyers told the court she is not suicidal and has been deemed so by outside psychologists.
“Ms. Maxwell was abruptly removed from general population and returned to solitary confinement, this time without any clothing, toothpaste, soap, legal papers, etc,” her lawyer’s letter said on Saturday. “She was provided a ‘suicide smock’ and is given a few sheets of toilet paper on request. This morning, a psychologist evaluated Ms. Maxwell and determined she is not suicidal.”
Her lawyers said she is unable to prepare for sentencing and “is prohibited from reviewing legal materials prior to sentencing, becomes sleep-deprived, and is denied sufficient time to meet with and confer with counsel.” They said if this doesn’t change by Monday, they will formally request to have sentencing date delayed.
“I met with Ms. Maxwell today (after a 97-minute delay following my arrival at the facility),” her lawyer said. “She is not suicidal.”
The Department of Justice responded to Maxwell’s legal team Sunday afternoon, saying she was put on suicide watch after she allegedly emailed the Bureau of Prisons Inspector General’s Office claiming she feared for her safety. However, it said Maxwell does have a hard copy of all her legal documents and “is able to confer with defense counsel.”
“Here, the Warden and Chief Psychologist assessed that the defendant is at heightened risk of self-harm, particularly given her upcoming sentencing and sex offender status. As a result, they are not comfortable placing the defendant in the SHU (Special Housing Unit), but they also need to remove the defendant from general population to investigate the threat she reported to the IG,” United States attorney Damian Williams wrote to the court Sunday.
Following Maxwell’s email, and her alleged refusal to answer questions from the prison’s psychology staff, she was removed from the general population and placed on a suicide watch, according to the US Attorneys Office.
“Although the defendant has claimed to psychology staff that she is not suicidal, she has refused to answer psychology staff’s questions regarding the threat she reported to the IG. While she claimed to the IG to be in fear for her safety, she refused to tell psychology staff what that fear is,” Williams wrote.
“Given the defendant’s inconsistent accounts to the IG and to psychology staff, the Chief Psychologist assesses the defendant to be at additional risk of self-harm, as it appears she may be attempting to be transferred to a single cell where she can engage in self-harm. The defendant will remain on suicide watch until the MDC assesses that she is no longer at heightened risk of self-harm,” Williams wrote.
Prosecutors said despite her legal team’s claim, there’s no reason to delay Maxwell’s sentencing on Tuesday.
The Bureau of Prisons said it doesn’t comment on individual inmates.
“The BOP is committed to ensuring the safety and security of all inmates in our population, our staff, and the public. Humane treatment of the men and women in our custody is a top priority,” a Bureau of Prisons spokesperson told ABC News.
ABC News has previously reported that while she was awaiting trial, Maxwell was given paper clothes as a precaution.
(NEW YORK) — The Supreme Court’s landmark decision overturning Roe v. Wade has set the stage for a major test of public and private pregnancy support programs that abortion rights opponents have touted for decades.
“This is not the moment to celebrate. I’m not celebrating,” said Archbishop William Lori, the top American Catholic leading the church’s campaign for alternatives to abortion. “This is a moment for steadiness, for staying the course, for increased compassion, for increased services.”
Maternity homes and crisis pregnancy resource centers – offering everything from housing support to free diapers — are expecting a surge of demand in states enacting strict new bans on abortion. The Catholic Church is one of the leading backers of a national pregnancy aid network.
“Our major focus is woman and child. Not only do we provide services, we are robust advocates for the poor, needy and vulnerable,” Lori said.
Critics say the church is dangerously ill-equipped and unprepared. In the 13 states with trigger laws enacted to ban abortions after Roe was overturned, more than 103,000 were performed in 2020 alone, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“I don’t think they have reckoned with what the ramifications are going to be in a post-Roe world,” Jamie Manson, president for Catholics for Choice, told ABC News. “The amount of care and social work and life skill training that these women need is massive.”
Since SB8 banned nearly all abortions in Texas beginning in September 2021, 84,000 women have signed up with a state-funded program “Alternatives to Abortion” aimed at supporting women who continue unwanted pregnancies, according to the Texas Health and Human Services.
Texas Catholic aid programs are also seeing an impact.
“We have a wait list now. We’re already trying to gear up and make sure that we can meet the current need in addition to any increase that we might see,” said Kasey Whitley, who oversees the Gabriel Project in Ft. Worth, a church-funded ministry for women in crisis pregnancies.
The diocese helped 175 women last year. Kexsy Villeda, a single mom who found out she was unexpectedly pregnant the day she got divorced, said the program provided her with emotional support and financial stability.
“I looked at my son, and I couldn’t. No,” she said of briefly contemplating abortion five months into her pregnancy.
Kathleen Wilson, director of Mary’s Shelter in Fredericksburg, Va., a Catholic-funded organization helping women with unintended or unwanted pregnancies, told ABC News she’s expanding capacity this summer because of a steady stream of women in need.
The Catholic Church is the nation’s largest single religious institution with 18,000 local parishes. Its leaders have long promised women in crisis pregnancies unconditional emotional and financial aid well into motherhood, if they carry their child to term.
“The church is not just about bans. In fact, that’s not our major focus,” Lori said. A spokesman for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops could not provide a dollar figure for how much the Church spends on pregnancy support each year nationwide.
Catholic abortion rights advocates say allowing a woman to terminate her pregnancy should be a matter of conscience and social justice. And, many argue, efforts to dissuade women from abortion involve misleading claims about long-term support.
“Forced motherhood is never a good thing. And to deny someone what is for them, essential care, is wrong. I think it’s a sin,” Manson said.
The American Public Health Association, in a brief to the Supreme Court last year, said that abortion bans will lead to “elevated risks of maternal mortality….infant mortality…[and] traumas …[that can] trigger inter-generational harm.”
“Look at the big picture. Since Roe v. Wade, it’s been 63 million abortions. That’s a lot. A lot of loss of life,” Lori said when asked about the analysis. “The answer is to provide the best medical care we can.”
Critics of the Church and other faith-based initiatives opposing abortion say they prioritize bans over lobbying for expansion of social programs that support life, like a higher minimum wage, nutrition assistance, and paid family leave.
The 14 states that have had the most restrictive abortion laws, including Texas, invest the least in policies and programs for women and children, according to a 2020 analysis by the nonpartisan Commonwealth Fund, a social policy think tank.
“I don’t think we should underestimate the generosity either of the charities or services we provide, or of God’s people,” Lori said. “The church in Texas is stepping up to the plate. They’ve kind of, again, given us a preview and I think a very helpful preview of what’s to come.”
(LOUISVILLE, Ky.) — A Kentucky pediatrician was charged in a plot she allegedly conceived to kill her ex-husband and gain sole custody of her children, according to court documents unsealed by the Justice Department.
According to the criminal complaint, Dr. Stephanie Russell, 52, asked an undercover agent posing as a hitman for “Christmas flowers” to be delivered to her ex-husband before Christmas last year, FBI investigators say. The FBI alleges that Christmas flowers is a moniker for carrying out a hit against her ex-husband.
Investigators say Russell allegedly sent text messages to the agent arranging for the murder as well as payment for the plot.
Russell is charged with the use of interstate commerce facilities in the commission of murder-for-hire. She appeared in federal court in Louisville, Kentucky, last week and pleaded not guilty. Her trial is set for August. An attorney representing Russell did not return ABC News’ request for comment.
FBI investigators say they were first tipped off about Russell in 2019, when a nanny for the family said in a sworn affidavit provided by the attorney of Russell’s husband that Russell had asked the nanny if she knew “some really bad people,” according to the complaint. The nanny said she thought she was joking at first, according to investigators.
Investigators say they did not find enough evidence to charge Russell at that time.
Russell had previously accused her husband, Rick Crabtree, of abusing their children. An investigation by the Louisville Metro Police Department did not find evidence of the abuse and Crabtree was awarded custody of their children while Russell had supervised visits two days a week.
Crabtree did not immediately respond to a request for comment from ABC News.
Nearly three years later, a Louisville private investigator came to the FBI with what he believed was a murder-for-hire plot involving the same pediatrician, court documents say.
A confidential witness, who was employed at Russell’s practice, then told the FBI that between July 2021 and March 2022, Russell approached two nurses at her practices on separate occasions and asked each of them for help in killing Crabtree, investigators allege.
Text messages, investigators allege, prove that Russell wanted to carry out a hit against to her ex-husband.
In the messages, Russell and a second witness agreed to a payment of $4,000 to deliver “Christmas flowers,” the complaint shows. Russell agreed to pay the person another $1,000 if the plan was carried out before Christmas, investigators say.
The witness initially told Russell that the hitman they knew had died and was no longer able to carry out the hit, but months later, according to the FBI, she was still looking for someone to kill her ex-husband.
In May of 2022, Russell informed the witness she was still looking for “flowers,” the court documents say. The witness then gave her the number of an FBI undercover agent, who said they could facilitate the “delivery of flowers” to her ex-husband.
Russell allegedly asked the undercover agent to make it appear as if Crabtree committed suicide, investigators say. She gave the agent information on how to unlock the biometric lock code on her ex-husband’s phone so that the agent could text a fake suicide note after his death, according to the complaint.
The doctor also expressed concern that she would look “guilty” because she had expressed distain for her ex-husband publicly before, according to the complaint.
Russell left $3,500 outside of her office as “payment” for the undercover agent, investigators say.
Russell is in custody pending her trial. If convicted, she faces a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison, the DOJ says.
