(KEY WEST, Fla.) — The archeological remains of a 19th century hospital and cemetery have been found on a submerged island near Garden Key, the second-largest island in the Dry Tortugas National Park near Key West, Florida. The hospital served as a 19th century quarantine and cemetery for yellow fever patients between 1890 and 1900, according to the National Parks Service.
Historical records indicate that dozens of people, mostly U.S. soldiers stationed at Fort Jefferson, may have been buried at the cemetery, according to the NPS.
Dozens of people were interred in the Fort Jefferson Post Cemetery — most of them were military members serving or imprisoned at the Fort. Some civilians may have been buried there as well, historians said.
Only one grave has been identified, according to the NPS. A headstone in the underwater cemetery reads the name John Greer, who died while working at Fort Jefferson on Nov. 5, 1861.
The details surrounding Greer’s death are unclear, but his grave was prominently marked with a large slab of greywacke, the same material used to construct the first floor of Fort Jefferson, according to the NPS. It is inscribed with his name and date of death.
Historians are continuing to look for more information on Greer and other individuals interred on the now submerged island.
Fort Jefferson was mostly known for its use as a military prison during the American Civil War, but the islands and waters surrounding the fort were also used as a naval coaling outpost, lighthouse station, naval hospital, quarantine facility and safe harbor and military training, historians said.
The risk of deadly communicable diseases, particularly the mosquito-borne yellow fever, drastically increased as the population of Fort Jefferson increased with military personnel, prisoners, enslaved people, engineers, support staff, laborers and their families, according to the NPS. Major outbreaks of disease on the island killed dozens throughout the 1860s and 1870s.
As the population on Garden Key increased, several of the islands nearby were equipped with small structures for use as quarantine hospitals in the 1860s.
“The transfer of sick and dying patients to these small islands, isolated from the congested Fort Jefferson, likely saved hundreds from a similar fate,” the NPS said.
The use of many of the quarantine hospitals on the surrounding islands ceased after Fort Jefferson was abandoned in 1873, but the U.S. Marine Hospital Service required the development of an isolation hospital on one of the keys toward the end of the 19th century.
The discovery, conducted in August 2022 by several organizations, highlights the untold stories in Dry Tortugas National Park, “both above and below the water,” Josh Marano, maritime archeologist for the south Florida national parks and project director for the survey, said in a statement.
“Although much of the history of Fort Jefferson focuses on the fortification itself and some of its infamous prisoners, we are actively working to tell the stories of the enslaved people, women, children and civilian laborers,” Marano said.
The findings also highlight the impacts of climate change on resources in the Dry Tortugas, the NPS said.
The facilities were originally built on dry land, but dynamic conditions caused many of the islands to move over time, and climate change and major storm events have even caused some islands to settle and erode beneath the waves.
ABC News’ Dominick Proto contributed to this report.
(DAVIS, Calif.) — The FBI is helping investigate three “brazen” stabbings — two of which killed a college senior and a homeless man — within one week in Davis, California, according to police.
Davis Police Chief Darren Pytel said Tuesday that authorities are still investigating whether the “unprecedented” stabbings are related, though he noted that the suspect descriptions for the second and third attacks are “substantially similar.” There were no witnesses to the first attack.
“We aren’t able yet to positively link the three crimes,” the chief said. “We’re still waiting for evidence to come back.”
The most recent stabbing took place at about 11:45 p.m. Monday at a transient camp in Davis, about 15 miles west of Sacramento. A woman said she was stabbed multiple times through her tent, police said. The victim underwent surgery and is in “critical but stable condition,” Pytel said.
She “was able to provide a description of the assailant and she was able to tell us what happened,” the chief said.
The suspect is described as a college-aged man with a light complexion and curly hair, police said. He’s thin and stands at 5-foot-6 to 5-foot-9, police said, and was last seen wearing black Adidas pants with a white stripe on the side and carrying a brown backpack, police said.
UC Davis said it issued “a campus WarnMe message” around 1 a.m. Tuesday. The city initiated a “shelter in place” order overnight that was lifted several hours later.
Just days earlier, around 9:15 p.m. Saturday, UC Davis senior Karim Abou Najm, a 20-year-old computer science major, was stabbed to death at Davis’ Sycamore Park, according to the university and police.
“Karim was a wonder of energy, a free spirit, someone who just wants to see goodness around him,” his father, Majdi Abou Najm, told Sacramento ABC affiliate KXTV.
“I am simply devastated,” UC Davis Chancellor Gary May tweeted. “By all accounts, he was an exceptional student, son and friend.”
May added, “I know many of you are frightened by what’s happened, especially so quickly after the stabbing incident that occurred on Thursday in Davis’ Central Park.”
On Thursday, David Breaux, a homeless man who was a staple in Davis for over a decade, was stabbed multiple times and killed in the city’s Central Park, according to police. He was found on a park bench where he often slept, Pytel said.
Breaux dedicated his life to compassion and restorative justice, and was a beloved presence in Davis, friends said at a vigil this weekend. The Davis community had worked together to build a bench, dubbed The Compassion Bench, for Breaux to have a place to sit and talk with Davis residents about what compassion meant to them, mourners said. Breaux kept notes and turned those conversations into a book, they said.
Breaux’s family said in a statement, “David was an extraordinary and beloved brother, community member, and human being. He simply existed on a higher plane than most of us. If there’s anything positive that can possibly come from this, I hope it’s that we all find it in our hearts to live more compassionately, which is exactly what he would’ve wanted.”
The chancellor said in his statement, “Like so many of you, I am grieving the death of David Henry Breaux, known as the ‘Compassion Guy.’ … David led a life with real purpose, to connecting humanity for the greater good, something we should all aspire to do.”
As the investigation continues, UC Davis said it has expanded the hours available for safe rides from campus to off-campus locations.
The university said there are no changes to classes during the day, but “the Academic Senate is considering potential changes to instruction during evening hours.”
Police said in a statement, “If you must be out at night, consider traveling in groups, and report suspicious activity to the Davis Police Department by calling 530-747-5400, emailing policeweb@cityofdavis.org, or if you would like to remain anonymous, call our tip line at 530-747-5460.”
ABC News’ Dea Athon, Alyssa Gregory and Jenna Harrison contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — The Department of Defense plans to send 1,500 additional active-duty troops to support the security mission along the U.S.-Mexico border for a temporary three-month period ahead of an expected surge of migrants with the end of Title 42 restrictions on May 11, according to U.S. officials.
They will join 2,500 National Guard members already there on an active-duty status assisting Border Patrol agents with ground-based detection and monitoring.
The new troops will also help with data entry, and warehouse support.
While some might be armed for self-defense purposes, they will have no direct role in interacting with migrants at the border, according to multiple officials.
“They will not be performing law-enforcement functions or interacting with immigrants or migrants,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said on Tuesday.
The move comes after an executive order from President Joe Biden last week that authorized the secretaries of the Department of Homeland Security and DOD “to order to active duty such units and individual members of the Ready Reserve” to better respond to the “the unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security, foreign policy, and economy of the United States posed by international drug trafficking.”
The 1,500 additional troops will be from the active-duty military, not from the National Guard or reserves, at least initially, according to the official.
(NEW YORK) — A businesswoman testified Tuesday in E. Jean Carroll’s civil defamation and battery case against former President Donald Trump that Trump had groped her during a flight to New York in 1979, in what Carroll’s attorneys said showed a pattern of behavior on Trump’s part.
Jessica Leeds is one of two women who the court has ruled are allowed to testify about prior alleged assaults by Trump, who is accused by Carroll of defaming the former Elle magazine columnist in a 2022 Truth Social post by calling her allegations “a Hoax and a lie” and saying “This woman is not my type!” when he denied her claim that Trump raped her in a Bergdorf Goodman department store dressing room in the 1990s.
She added a charge of battery under a recently adopted New York law that allows adult survivors of sexual abuse to sue their alleged attacker regardless of the statute of limitations. Trump has denied all allegations that he raped Carroll or defamed her.
Leeds, who first made her allegations to The New York Times just before the 2016 presidential election, testified that she was on a flight to New York when she was bumped up to first class from her coach seat and wound up next to Trump.
“When I got up there and sat down, the gentleman sitting by the window introduced himself as Donald Trump. We shook hands,” Leeds, who was 37 at the time, testified. “What happened was, they served a meal. And it was cleared and we were sitting there, when all of a sudden Trump decided to kiss me and grope me.”
She said there was no conversation — “It was out of the blue.”
Leeds described the alleged encounter “like a tussle,” saying, “He was trying to kiss me. He was trying to pull me towards him. He was grabbing my breasts. It was like he had 40 million hands.”
“It was when he started putting his hand up my skirt, that gave me a jolt of strength,” testified Leeds, who said she freed herself and went “storming back to my seat in the back of coach.”
Trump has denied the allegations.
Leeds, like Carroll, did not scream or yell during the alleged encounter.
“It never occurred to me to yell out,” Leeds said. When asked “Why not?” by Carroll’s attorney, she said, “I don’t know.”
Leeds recalled waiting until every other passenger had deplaned before she left, because she didn’t want to risk running into Trump again. She said she told no one about the alleged incident.
“I did not tell anybody at work because I didn’t think they would be interested in my experience,” Leeds said. “At that time and that place, in the work environment, men could basically get away with a lot.”
Leeds said she only revealed what allegedly happened to her when Trump started running for president.
“I started off telling my family, telling my children, telling my friends, my neighbors, my book club, anyone and everyone who would listen to me,” Leeds said. “I thought he was not the kind of person we wanted as president.”
Leeds said that three years after the alleged incident, she saw Trump with his pregnant then-wife, Ivanna, at a Humane Society of New York gala at Saks Fifth Avenue, where she was giving out table assignments.
“He looked at me and he said, ‘I remember you, you’re that c— from the airplane,'” Leeds said. “It was like a bucket of cold water thrown over my head.”
On cross-examination, Tacopina asked, incredulously, “That was from a few-second interaction from an airplane that he remembered you, apparently?”
Leeds testified that she could not recall the exact date of the alleged assault, could not recall the origin of her LaGuardia-bound flight, and did not know who Trump was at the time, describing him as “some random guy sitting next to me on the airplane.”
“Fair to say you can’t name one witness who saw what happened to you?” Tacopina asked. “Correct,” Leeds replied.
“Not a single person can corroborate your story?” Tacopina asked. “That is correct,” Leeds said.
On re-direct, Carroll’s attorney, Michael Ferrara, asked, “Are you making this up because you hate Donald Trump?”
“No, I’m not making this up,” Leeds answered.
Asked why she didn’t report the alleged assault to her bosses, since it occurred on a business trip, Leeds said, “If I had gone in and complained about what had happened, my feeling was my boss would say to me, ‘That’s really too bad, how about lunch?'”
“I didn’t want any sympathy. I wanted this job,” said Leeds. “It was a good paying job.”
The jury also saw a clip of Trump on the 2016 campaign trial denying Leeds’ accusation, saying, “She would not be my first choice” — echoing his response to Carroll that “she’s not my type.”
Earlier Tuesday, a friend of Carroll, writer Lisa Birnbach, testified that Carroll called her within “five to seven minutes” of Trump’s alleged attack at Bergdorf Goodman’s.
“She told me that Donald Trump recognized her outside or right in the doorway of Bergdorf Goodman, he asked her to help him shop, and assaulted her upstairs in a dressing room,” Birnbach testified.
Birnbach testified that she “thought it was kind of nutty” for Carroll to go to the lingerie department with Trump, but she did not think it was dangerous.
“I had just spent a few days with him,” Birnbach said of Trump, referring to two days she spent at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate for a Feb. 12, 1996, piece she wrote for New York magazine. “He didn’t strike me as dangerous.”
Birnbach described the alleged assault as she said Carroll relayed it to her, saying, “He slammed his whole arm, pinned her against the wall with his arm and shoulders and with his free hand pulled down her tights.”
“And E. Jean said to me many times, ‘He pulled down my tights, he pulled down my tights.’ Almost like she couldn’t believe it had just happened to her,” Birnbach said.
“As soon as she said that, even though I knew my children didn’t know the word, I ducked out of the room and I whispered ‘E. Jean, he raped you, you should go to the police,'” Birnbach testified.
“She said, ‘No, no I don’t want to go to the police,'” Birnbach told the jury, saying that Carroll made her promise that “‘you will never speak of this again and promise me that you will tell no one.’ And I promised her both those things.”
In earlier testimony, Carroll described being in somewhat of a stupor when she called Birnbach after leaving the department store, laughing as she relayed her alleged encounter with Trump. It was Birnbach, Carroll said, who told her to stop laughing because she had been raped.
“And even when Lisa said it, it took a real effort for me to take it in,” Carroll testified. “Lisa is the one who focused my brain for that moment. It was Lisa saying that.”
Birnbach said the account that Carroll gave when she went public with the accusation in her 2019 book matched what Carroll told her in the spring of 1996.
“After I read the excerpt, I called E. Jean and told her how brave she was and what a good piece it was,” Birnbach said.
“She’s not a victim,” Birnbach said. “She doesn’t want anybody’s pity. She is somebody who, and I think it’s the way she was raised, instead of wallowing, she puts on lipstick, dusts herself off, and moves on. I think that’s how she has gotten through her life.”
Birnbach told the jury that she supported Hillary Clinton for president in 2016, was “surprised and upset” Trump won, and, on her podcast, called Trump a “narcissistic sociopath” who is “an infection like herpes that we can’t get rid of.”
But, she said, she was only testifying “because my friend, my good friend, who is a good person, told me something terrible that happened to her. As a result she lost her employment and her life became very, very difficult. I am here because I want the world to know that she was telling the truth.”
The defense has said that Carroll was motivated by “political reasons” to publish her allegation against Trump and, subsequently, sue him for defamation and battery. In its cross-examination of Birnbach, the defense questioned her about unflattering things she has said about Trump online and on various podcasts.
“Do you recall saying in a Facebook post the following: ‘Does it get worse than Donald Trump? I’ll tell you in my entire life I’ve never felt a hatred like a feel toward this person,'” defense attorney Perry Brandt asked Birnbach. He asked if, on a podcast, she said, “President Trump, and I don’t like to use those two words together.” On a different podcast, he asked if she said of Trump, “He’s a madman. He’s a narcissistic sociopath. He’s a malignant sociopath. He’s a Russian agent. He’s bad, he’s bad, and God knows what he can do before he leaves.”
Birnbach testified that all of those things sound like something she would have said.
On re-direct, Carroll’s attorney, Shawn Crowley, asked Birnbach, “When Ms. Carroll had called you in 1996 and told you he had just assaulted her, was he a political figure?” Birnbach replied, “Not at all.”
“Donald Trump in 1996 was a well-known New York person,” Birnbach said. “He was not in politics. He was not near politics. He was a guy who liked publicity and attention and he was also a known womanizer. My friend wasn’t raped by a president. She was assaulted by a guy, a real estate guy.”
“Would you lie to prevent Donald Trump from being president?” Crowley asked.
“Never,” Birnbach replied.
On Monday, under cross examination by defense attorney Joe Tacopina, Carroll said she didn’t contact police after she was allegedly attacked by Trump because, as a woman born in the 1940s, she’s a member of the “silent generation” that didn’t speak up about such things. The exchange came after Tacopina introduced several of her advice columns for Elle magazine in which she suggested that her readers call police in the event of a sexual assault or threat.
“There were numerous times where you’ve advised your readers to call the police” despite Carroll never reporting her own alleged rape to police, Tacopina said to Carroll.
“In most cases I advised my readers to go to the police,” Carroll replied.
“I was born in 1943,” she said. “I am a member of the silent generation. Women like me were taught to keep our chins up and not complain. The fact that I never went to the police is not surprising for someone my age. I would rather have done anything than call the police.”
The answer was stricken from the record as nonresponsive to the question posed, but the exchange continued the defense’s questioning of Carroll’s actions following the alleged assault, and their suggestions that her behavior — not going to the police, not seeking security camera footage, continuing to shop at Bergdorf’s — is at odds with how other sex assault victims might behave.
The nine-member jury of six men and three women is weighing Carroll’s defamation and battery claims and deciding potential monetary damages.
Carroll’s lawsuit is her second against Trump related to her rape allegation.
She previously sued Trump in 2019 after the then-president denied her rape claim by telling The Hill that Carroll was “totally lying,” saying, “I’ll say it with great respect: No. 1, she’s not my type. No. 2, it never happened. It never happened, OK?” That defamation suit has been caught in a procedural back-and-forth over the question of whether Trump, as president, was acting in his official capacity as an employee of the federal government when he made those remarks.
If Trump is determined to have been acting as a government employee, the U.S. government would substitute as the defendant in that suit — which means that case would go away, since the government cannot be sued for defamation.
This month’s trial is taking place as Trump seeks the White House for a third time, while facing numerous legal challenges related to the Jan. 6 Capitol attack, his handling of classified material after leaving the White House, and possible attempts to interfere in Georgia’s 2020 vote. Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis said last week she would decide whether to file criminal charges against Trump or his allies this summer.
(MEMPHIS, Tenn.) — Preston Hemphill, the white officer seen on body camera footage during Tyre Nichols’ traffic stop, will not be charged in Nichols’ death, according to Hemphill’s attorney.
Shelby County District Attorney Steve Mulroy also announced Tuesday that he will not bring any criminal charges against Hemphill in connection with the case.
Nichols, 29, died three days after he was beaten by officers during a January traffic stop in Memphis.
Hemphill, who was not present at the beating, was fired from the Memphis Police Department in February for violating “multiple department policies” during the incident, the department said.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(LAUREL, Miss.) — A national nonprofit organization is offering a $50,000 reward for any information that will lead to the “arrest and conviction” of a 25-year-old Black man’s killer.
Rasheem Carter was reported missing last October and was last seen in Laurel, Mississippi. His mother, Tiffany Carter, said her son warned her and the police that he was being targeted by white men in the community. “Three truckloads of white guys” were trying to kill him, Rasheem Carter told his mother before his disappearance.
Last Saturday, Carter’s family and community members protested his death, demanding transparency in the investigation. A fourth set of remains were identified as Carter’s on April 30, according to attorneys.
“This has really been a struggle for our family, but we’re going to do the best we can to fight,” Tiffany Carter said during the protest. “We’re going to do what we gotta do to get the justice that we deserve to have.”
You Are The Power, the nonprofit offering the $50,000 award, has been searching for leads in the Carter case.
“When Rasheem Carter needed help, police refused,” the nonprofit said in an Instagram post. “But we can help bring justice to Rasheem’s killer(s), and closure to his loved ones.”
According to its website, the organization has over 50 million social media followers and has relationships with activists and organizations across all 50 states.
“Our purpose is to use localized, grassroots, single-issue activism to empower people to work together to set our communities free, restore individual rights, and take the power away from government and put it back in your hands, where it belongs,” according to You Are The Power’s site.
On Nov. 2, the first set of Rasheem Carter’s remains were found in a wooded area south of Taylorsville. His head was severed from his body, with his spinal cord recovered in an area separate from his head, according to family attorney Ben Crump.
The medical examiner ruled that the cause and manner of death were undetermined.
“Rasheem was killed last October, and local police have refused to do anything about it. They claim there is ‘no evidence’ of foul play, even though his head was removed from his body,” You Are The Power said on Instagram.
The Smith County Police Department originally ruled out foul play in the case. According to Crump, officials later recanted their statement.
“From the beginning of this case, the family has been misled,” Crump said. “At first, when the first of Rasheem’s remains were discovered with his head decapitated from his body, officials told the family that it was animals that killed Rasheem. Then officials admitted that they believed he was murdered.”
Crump, along with his co-counsel Carlos Moore, is calling for the U.S. Department of Justice to open a federal investigation into Carter’s death.
(MINNEAPOLIS) — Former Minneapolis police officer Tou Thao has been found guilty of a charge of aiding in manslaughter, stemming from the 2020 death of George Floyd.
(NEW YORK) — Shootings have continuously made headlines in just the first few months of the year.
As of May 1, at least 13,959 people have died from gun violence in the U.S. this year, according to the Gun Violence Archive — which is an average of roughly 115 deaths each day.
Of those who died, 491 were teens and 85 were children.
Deaths by suicide have made up the vast majority of gun violence deaths this year. There’s been an average of about 66 deaths by suicide per day in 2023.
The majority of these deaths have occurred in Texas, California, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, Illinois and Louisiana.
The grim tally of gun violence deaths includes 460 people killed in officer-involved shootings.
There have also been 494 “unintentional” shootings, the Gun Violence Archive shows.
There have been 184 mass shootings in 2023 so far, which is defined by the Gun Violence Archive as an incident in which four or more victims are shot or killed. These mass shootings have led to 248 deaths and 744 injuries.
There have been at least 13 K-12 school shootings so far this year, including a recent incident in Nashville, Tennessee, on March 27 when three children and three staff members were shot and killed at the Covenant School, a Christian school for students in preschool through sixth grade.
In Michigan, three students were killed and five others were injured when a gunman opened fire at two locations on Michigan State University’s main campus in East Lansing on Feb. 13, police said.
California saw three mass shootings in a matter of days in January, with one shooting leaving at least 11 people killed and 10 others injured after a gunman opened fire at a dance studio near a Lunar New Year celebration in Monterey Park, California.
The U.S. has surpassed 39,000 deaths from gun violence per year since 2014, according to data from Gun Violence Archive. Still, gun deaths are down from 2016, 2017 and 2018, when the total number of deaths each year surpassed 50,000. There were 44,310 such deaths in 2022.
Last June, President Joe Biden signed into law a gun safety package passed by Congress. It was the first gun reform bill from Congress in decades.
But advocates for gun reform continue to push for tougher measures. Florida lawmakers Rep. Jared Moskowitz and Rep. Maxwell Frost spoke with ABC News’ GMA3 to mark the fifth anniversary of the tragic shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School and called on Congress to do more to curb gun violence.
“Five years later, we feel like we’ve made some progress and then we were reminded that nothing has changed,” Moskowitz said.
If you or someone you know is struggling with thoughts of suicide, free, confidential help is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Call or text the national lifeline at 988. Even if you feel like it, you are not alone.
(NEW YORK) — On the one-year anniversary of a student’s death, an elite boarding school in New Jersey released a statement publicly admitting its failure.
The Lawrenceville School released a statement acknowledging that it failed to protect student Jack Reid, who died by suicide in 2022, from bullying, saying it “fell tragically short” in Jack’s case. Jack was 17 at the time.
Elizabeth and Bill Reid, Jack’s parents, spoke to ABC News’ Good Morning America about their son’s suicide after bullying at The Lawrenceville School.
“We were well aware of what was going on and we were encouraging him. He advocated for himself. He talked to the school. He talked to his friends. We were meant to see him the next morning and the last words we spoke to him about were, ‘Dad, I’m doing better. I love you,'” Bill Reid recalled.
The school said in its statement that it had been made aware of the bullying and “cruel behavior” toward Jack and “there were steps that the school should have taken in hindsight and did not.” It promised to make changes and do better.
“Bullying and unkind behavior, and actions taken or not taken by the school, likely contributed to Jack’s death,” read part of the statement posted by The Lawrenceville School on April 30.
The statement was required as part of a settlement deal with the family of Jack Reid, who had filed a lawsuit against the school.
In the spring of 2021, an untrue rumor spread across The Lawrenceville School campus that Jack, who was a junior in high school at the time, had committed sexual assault by kissing a girl. Then, in September 2021, a false claim that Jack was a rapist was posted anonymously to a nationwide student app, in a letter from the school obtained by ABC.
The school reportedly investigated the rumors and found them false, but never publicly shared the results or told Jack, in the letter.
On April 30, 2022, a student, who was disciplined for bullying Jack, was expelled from the school for other reasons, however, the school admitted that the student was allowed to return “largely unsupervised” to the dorm where Jack lived, according to the statement. Students gathered with the expelled student and reportedly began bullying Jack, according to the statement released by the school. Later that night, he died by suicide, according to the statement from the school.
The school announced that it will create policies around spotting and stopping bullying and has since agreed to contribute to multiple nonprofits focused on bullying and suicide prevention per the school’s latest statement.
“Jack was universally regarded as an extremely kind and good-hearted young man, with an unwavering sense of social and civic responsibility and a bright future. We continue to mourn this loss,” the school said in part of the statement.
It added, “We acknowledge that more should have been done to protect Jack.”
If you or someone you know are experiencing suicidal, substance use or other mental health crises, please call or text 988. You will reach a trained crisis counselor for free, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. You can also go to 988lifeline.org or dial the current toll free number 800-273-8255 [TALK].
(NEW YORK) — Kelly Shannon was excited when she found out she was pregnant. With a daughter under the age of 2, Shannon and her husband had been actively trying for a second child.
The Alabama couple’s happiness quickly turned to heartbreak when testing revealed just three days before Christmas there was an 87% chance the baby had Down syndrome.
Shannon had asked for genetic testing because the couple wanted to tell family the baby’s gender at Christmas. She was pregnant with a girl.
“I spent the next few weeks trying not to get too attached, but it’s hard not to love a baby you have prayed for,” Shannon told ABC News.
At an appointment with a maternal fetal medicine specialist in January, Shannon was counseled on resources available for parents of children with the disorder. However, more scans and test results showed there was evidence of swelling in the baby’s head and body wall, a heart defect and a tumor on the baby’s abdomen that was about one-third the size of the baby and growing.
While none of the baby’s conditions on its own would warrant a termination under the guidelines of the one hospital in the state still providing abortions, Shannon’s specialist strongly believed this combination of symptoms made it extremely unlikely the pregnancy would survive to term or through labor and delivery. Her physician believed the hospital would be able to provide her with abortion care despite Alabama law prohibiting abortions at all stages of pregnancy.
“The likelihood of the baby surviving was negligible,” Shannon said. “Even if she did survive to term, it would be unlikely she’d survived through labor. And if she did survive through labor, then we’d be looking at multiple corrective surgeries immediately after birth.”
A report from her physician that was shared with ABC News confirmed the doctor had “conveyed the high likelihood that the findings may lead to an intrauterine demise [of the fetus] due to heart failure or neonatal demise.”
Dr. Carrie Rouse, a maternal fetal medicine specialist in Indiana who did not treat Shannon but reviewed some of her records, said that if she would have seen Shannon she would have counseled her on the same options: continuing her pregnancy and providing her the best care available, including potentially delivering early, or terminating the pregnancy.
These are the same options Shannon’s specialist in Alabama gave her, according to physician reports shared with ABC News.
“It is truly a tragedy that someone’s options for what to do with their pregnancy and their own body is dependent on their zip code,” Rouse told ABC News. “I just feel so sad for her and for her family and her physicians that are put in this position to where she can’t access — and they can’t provide — the care that she has been counseled about and has opted for in her own home. It’s so hard. It’s devastating.”
Alabama is one of 15 states that has ceased nearly all abortion services since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last June, ending federal protections for abortion rights.
Shannon and her husband decided to pursue termination and she filled out the necessary paperwork. An abortion would need to be approved by several hospital committees made up of doctors.
On Jan. 20, Shannon’s specialist called her and informed her that while one committee had approved the abortion, a higher-level committee denied permission, telling Shannon this was the hardest phone call she had to make in her professional career, Shannon said.
“That was probably the lowest, maybe the lowest or second lowest point of the whole traumatic experience,” Shannon said. “I was sitting in my car talking to her and I couldn’t form words. I just sat there and sobbed. I was in a parking lot and I pulled out my phone, and I texted my husband, I was like, ‘I need you to come see me and I need you to bring our daughter.'”
“I didn’t even feel like I had the ability to get out of the car until I saw her and had a reason. I didn’t have any motivation to move until I could see my daughter again,” Shannon added.
Shannon said the committee — made up of 13 physicians in the University of Alabama, Birmingham’s Maternal Fetal Medicine Department — said its decision was final unless the fetus developed a complication called hydrops fetalis, in which large amounts of fluid build up in a baby’s tissues and organs causing extensive swelling.
“The committee felt that since each condition was by itself potentially survivable — not that they would lead to any kind of quality of life, just that they could potentially lead to life — that under Alabama law they did not think that my case met the criteria for termination,” Shannon said.
Shannon’s fetus did not develop hydrops, so she was left unable to access abortion care, she said.
“The other thing that was happening was the state district attorney in Alabama was also going on the news and actively talking about pursuing convictions for anybody in performing abortions in Alabama,” Shannon said.
“UAB is the only place in the state that provides that service, so they were also trying really hard to make sure that they could protect their ability to do that for other women,” Shannon said.
ABC News requested comment from Shannon’s doctor, but they declined. Instead, UAB Hospital said in a statement to ABC News: “UAB does not perform elective abortions. We provide care to women who present to us in need of pregnancy-related care within the law.”
Shannon had to drive to Richmond, Virginia, to access abortion care. She left at 11 a.m. and arrived in Richmond at 2 a.m., after stopping several times along the way, she said.
The hospital arranged housing for Shannon at no cost through a hotel partner. While her insurance was employer-based and covered the procedure, Shannon said she received a $2,089 bill from Virginia Commonwealth University. She said she had already paid about $600 for the procedure.
The couple said it still hopes to grow their family when they are ready.
“This has been the single most painful and traumatic experience of my life and our lives, and anybody who wants to stand up and say that abortions are wrong or that people shouldn’t be able to make their own decisions about abortion care just need to recognize that it’s not a black and white issue,” Shannon said. “It is complicated and I wouldn’t wish this on anybody.”
