(WASHINGTON) — What started as a rocky presidential campaign launch marred with technical issues ended with a massive roll-in of cash for the first 24 hours of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ presidential campaign.
DeSantis raised $8.2 million in his first 24 hours as a presidential candidate, according to sources familiar with the fundraising. The governor’s spokesman, Bryan Griffin, later confirmed the figure to ABC News.
DeSantis’ campaign team aimed to raise $8-10 million in donations during the first 24 hours of the campaign, two sources confirmed to ABC News.
The amount DeSantis raised surpassed the $6.3 million President Joe Biden raised in the first 24 hours of his presidential launch in 2019.
The governor had summoned donors and fundraisers to the Four Seasons Hotel in Miami, Florida, for a two-day event that started on the same day as his campaign launch for president, which included dropping a campaign video announcing his run ahead of DeSantis taking to Twitter Spaces to discuss his run with Twitter CEO and billionaire Elon Musk. The rocky Twitter Spaces rollout did not deter from the excitement and support donors inside the Miami event had for DeSantis’ campaign, with attendees describing the event as “filled with a ton of energy.”
Although the governor and his wife, Casey DeSantis, did not attend the first day of the donor event, the pair appeared on the second day, arriving sometime around noon, according to a source familiar with the governor’s arrival. People who were in attendance said that they thought that the governor was “personable” and “fun.”
Sources who attended the fundraising event told ABC News that the governor and his wife were meeting with donors and jumping on calls to raise money for the campaign.
Even with the large sum of money raised within the first 24 hours of DeSantis’ campaign, other organizations plan to support the governor’s 2024 run.
The pro-DeSantis super PAC Never Back Down will use $100 million of its $200 million budget on voter outreach and field operations to support DeSantis’ presidential run financially.
The strong fundraising haul may be a boon to the campaign after its Wednesday launch, which was plagued by technical issues to the point that a link to a new Twitter Space needed to be created.
DeSantis’ next campaign-related event will be next week in Iowa where he’ll hold his campaign kick off.
(NEW YORK) — A Navy investigation found that the already tough selection course for Navy SEALs had become dangerous with lax oversight and medical care as course instructors pushed SEAL candidates to their physical limits, leaving some injured and hospitalized, and leading some to use performance enhancing drugs they believed would help them pass the course.
The Navy has committed to putting in place the investigation’s recommendations that followed earlier changes prompted by the investigation of the February, 2022 death of SEAL candidate Kyle Mullen.
The 24-year-old former Yale football team captain died just hours after having successfully completed the grueling “Hell Week” that is part of the Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL course, known as BUD/S, that selects sailors to become elite SEALs.
His death triggered investigations into how he had died and a broad command investigation of the entire BUD/S program.
The report into Mullen’s death led to changes that included better oversight of course instructors, more thorough medical screenings for cardiac conditions, updated medical policies, and more authorization to screen for performance enhancing drugs.
The nearly 200-page command investigation released Thursday identified “failures across multiple systems that led to a number of candidates being at a high risk of serious injury,” Rear Adm. Peter Garvin, the commander of Naval Education and Training Command, wrote in a summary accompanying the report.
Garvin said the safety risk to SEAL candidates amounted to “a near perfect storm” that resulted from “inadequate oversight, insufficient risk assessment, poor medical command and control, and undetected performance enhancing drug use,” and “wholly inadequate” medical monitoring and care following Hell Week.
He also described “a degree of complacency and insufficient attentiveness to a wide range of important inputs meant to keep the students safe.”
Already a grueling course, the investigation found that in recent years the SEAL selection process had become dangerous with poor leadership and little medical oversight.
Inexperienced instructors focused on “weeding out” candidates and “hunting the back of the pack” instead of fostering teamwork that led to a significant increase in attrition rates from the course.
One commander urged instructors to keep pushing the SEAL candidates whom he described as having “less mental toughness” than previous generations.
The change in tone increased the risks for potential injury to SEAL candidates as the medical care available to them was insufficient and inadequate according to the report.
Garvin described the course’s medical care as “poorly organized, poorly integrated, and poorly led” a situation that “put candidates at significant risk.”
The investigation also found what Garvin described as “strong indicators” of the use of performance-enhancing drugs (PEDS) in BUD/S by some SEAL candidates who believed they could help improve their chances of making it through the course.
“Illicit PEDS use represents a significant hazard to candidate health, and is also contrary to the SEAL ethos and the Navy’s core values,” wrote Garvin who supports the investigation’s recommendations to put in place a “robust” and increased education program to eliminate its use.
The report also provided additional details about the circumstances surrounding Mullen’s death, noting that in his final medical check after completing the course his lungs were weak and his legs were so swollen that he was sent back to his barracks in a wheelchair.
Once back at the barracks, there were delays in getting Mullen the medical care he needed and by the time emergency medics arrived he was already “without a pulse,” the report said. He died shortly after having been taken to a hospital.
“We want to make sure people are getting adequate care and not being left to die on the ground,” T.J. Mullen, Kyle Mullen’s brother, told ABC News in an exclusive interview. “We just need medical to look at these guys, it’s utterly pathetic that they weren’t being taken care of.”
Based on the report’s conclusions, Garvin determined that “accountability actions are also necessary.” A Navy spokesman told ABC News that some Navy personnel could face “potential accountability actions.”
“From our perspective, many people were involved and many people tried to cover up committed wrongdoings and accountability has not come,” T.J. Mullen told ABC News.
“We’ve been waiting for a year and a half almost at this point since my brother passed, and no one has gotten in trouble,” he added.
Following the Navy investigation of Mullen’s deat, three Navy officers who oversaw the program received administrative “non-punitive” letters. Earlier this month, two of the officers who headed the program were pulled from their jobs two months ahead of schedule.
“In the case of the training death of Seaman Mullen, the investigation revealed a lack of leadership and medical oversight and support,” said Eric Oehlerich, an ABC News contributor and a former SEAL commander. “It’s tragic, but where required, accountability is occurring.”
“We will honor Seaman Mullen’s memory by ensuring that the legacy of our fallen teammate guides us towards the best training program possible for our future Navy SEALs,” said Rear Adm. Keith Davids, commander, Naval Special Warfare Command, in a statement.
(WASHINGTON) — A former leading member of the far-right Oath Keepers militia group was sentenced Friday to eight years and six months in prison for her role in the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.
Jessica Watkins led a small group into the Capitol building, but prosecutors said her actions enabled many more to ultimately disrupt the certification of Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory.
Struggling to express her remorse through her tears, Watkins apologized before the court.
“My actions and behaviors on that fateful day were wrong and — as I now understand — criminal,” she said.
Watkins’ sentencing follows two lengthy prison terms handed down this week to Oath Keepers leader Stewart Rhodes and one of his chief lieutenants, Kelly Meggs. Rhodes on Thursday received the longest sentence of any Jan. 6 defendant to date at 18 years, while Meggs was sentenced to 12 years in prison.
Last November, Watkins was found guilty of conspiring to obstruct the certification of the 2020 election and actual obstruction of that proceeding. Unlike Rhodes and Meggs, she was acquitted on the more serious charge of seditious conspiracy against the United States.
Once inside the Capitol, Watkins jammed herself in a hallway packed with rioters heading toward the Senate chamber.
Police officers were at the opposite end of the hallway, pressing back against the mob. Officer Christopher Owens tearfully spoke to the court this week about the physical and emotional trauma he and other officers experienced.
“She used her body in that hallway,” federal prosecutor Alexandra Hughes told the court Friday. “She bears responsibility for the mental anguish and physical wounds of officers like Christopher Owens.”
Watkins founded a separate militia group in Ohio before joining with the Oath Keepers. A veteran and former medic, Watkins said she left the military after experiencing harassment over her gender transition.
“Your story and what you have endured … shows a great deal of courage, resilience, and you’ve overcome a lot,” federal judge Amit Mehta said before handing down her sentence.
“But all that doesn’t wipe out what happened that day,” Mehta said. “It doesn’t wipe out what you did that day.”
(NEW YORK) — A mom in Canada is sharing a warning about eating and drinking outdoors as summer approaches.
Reanna Bendzak said she, her husband and their two children were at an outdoor barbecue in March when she gave her then-7-month-old daughter a piece of celery to chew on.
“Our daughter was cutting her second tooth, so we gave her a piece of celery to chew on, just to help soothe those gums,” Bendzak, who asked that her daughter’s name not be used, told ABC News’ Good Morning America. “It wasn’t warm by any means, but it was sunny so she was covered neck-to-toe in a onesie and we had a sun hat on her, so we thought she was fairly well-protected.”
Bendzak said she and her husband wiped their daughter’s face multiple times throughout the afternoon with a cloth, but didn’t at the time wash her face with soap and water.
The next morning, Bendzak said her daughter woke up with a rash around her mouth, which later in the day worsened into blisters.
Bendzak said her daughter was ultimately diagnosed with a condition she had never heard of, phytophotodermatitis, a skin reaction that can happen after touching certain plants while out in the sun, according to research published in the journal Canadian Family Physician and available in the National Library of Medicine.
Celery is among the plants that can cause phytophotodermatitis, Bendzak said she and her husband learned. The condition is also commonly called “margarita burn” because limes and other citrus fruits are also culprits.
“As any parents out there would know, your first reaction is just like, ‘Oh my gosh, what did I do? And how could I have prevented that,'” Bendzak said. “But you’re only as good of a parent as the knowledge you have, and we did what we thought was best at the time.”
She continued, “Now in retrospect, of course, we would have done things differently and made an intentional effort to go inside and wash with soap and water.”
Bendzak said her daughter, who is now 9 months old, experienced blisters on her mouth area for about 10 days, and some scarring and hyperpigmentation for about six weeks, but now is “doing great.”
She said she and her husband estimate their daughter was only exposed to direct sunlight for about 20 minutes total that afternoon, but that was enough time to cause damage.
Once her daughter had recovered, Bendzak shared her family’s story on Facebook in hopes of spreading awareness of phytophotodermatitis.
“I had no idea that it was even a possibility until this experience,” Bendzak said. “Hopefully this story can help others learn from our experience and they can make better decisions for their own personal lives moving forward as well.”
How to treat and prevent phytophotodermatitis
Dr. Jennifer Ashton, ABC News’ chief medical correspondent and a board-certified OB-GYN, said the summer season is a time to be acutely aware of phytophotodermatitis as people are often outside cooking, eating and making drinks.
“Citrus is definitely the most common, and lime is the most common amongst the citrus,” Ashton said. “So, that’s why it’s gotten this name, ‘margarita burn.’ People are making or drinking margaritas, touching limes outside in the summer months, and that can be an exposure.”
In addition to celery and citrus, other plants and fruits that can cause phytophotodermatitis include carrots, peppers, dill, fennel, mustard, parsley and parsnip.
Ashton said the best prevention method is to wash your skin with soap and water if you are handling food and drinks while outside in the sun.
Another important prevention method, according to Ashton, is to wear sunscreen daily.
“If you are going to be outside in the summer months, make sure you’re reapplying that SPF every two hours,” she said, adding, “But to be crystal clear, [SPF] should be used 365 days a year, on your face, hands and neck, people of all skin colors, all skin types. So make it part of your day-to-day routine.”
If a person notices changes on their skin, Ashton said they should contact a healthcare provider.
She noted that phytophotodermatitis can present from mild to severe symptoms.
“It really is a spectrum of severity in terms of mild, moderate to severe,” Ashton said. “In mild cases, where someone has touched a lime or the citrus, you could just see some itching, some inflammation. You could see some some redness or pinkish discoloration depending on skin color, and then you could see a full spectrum of severity, ranging in more moderate cases to discoloration that may persist longer, and in severe cases, even some small blistering.”
(WASHINGTON) — Gridlock in Washington over raising the debt ceiling threatens to disrupt payments to millions of Americans who rely on government benefits each month.
Seniors, veterans and Americans living with disabilities could be the first to suffer if the federal government is unable to pay its bills as soon as June 1. Payments totaling about $100 billion are scheduled to go out June 1 and June 2, with more scheduled throughout the month.
Several people shared with ABC News their growing financial fears as the political stalemate continues.
Susan Prahl Meachum, a 64-year-old living in rural Virginia, said she will “lose everything” if there is no deal to raise the debt limit in time.
Meachum is disabled and receives a $941 Social Security payment on the first day of every month. She said a delay would mean she couldn’t afford rent, utilities or groceries.
“In Washington, we’re being treated like numbers, or just totally figures on a page. We’re human beings and we’re doing the best we can with what we’ve got,” Meachum said.
Pamala Gambe, 56, builds her entire budget around her $1,168 Social Security disability check, delivered on the third day of every month. Gambe lives with her granddaughter, and told ABC she struggles to “keep her in clothes or shoes.”
“I make sure all the bills are paid first,” she said.
Food stamps are also critical for Gambe amid persistently high inflation at the grocery store. The government is scheduled to pay out $1 billion in SNAP benefits on June 12. Gambe said she worries stricter work requirements for federal aid programs like food stamps — a key sticking point in the negotiations — could put her benefits at risk.
“Without Social Security and SNAP, not only will we be homeless, my goodness, we wouldn’t have money to buy food,” she said.
Also due on June 1 — $12 billion for veterans benefits. In North Carolina, 41-year-old Army veteran Skyleigh Heinen fears she’s among millions of vets whose VA benefits could be delayed.
“To me, there really isn’t a debate. We pay our bills,” she said.
Army veteran Naveed Shah in Washington, D.C., and Air Force veteran Jacob Thomas in Minneapolis, Minnesota, added the uncertainty over a U.S. default is already hitting American military families.
“Even if a deal is reached, everything winds up being okay next week, that still means that right now, families and veterans across the country are having to think about what does it mean for me to have to ration my current paycheck or my current disability paycheck,” Thomas said.
(NASHVILLE, Tenn.) — A Tennessee judge’s unprecedented ruling granting parents the legal right to object to the release of police evidence in a Nashville school mass shooting case could produce a chilling effect on what law enforcement officials make public about violent crime in the future, experts told ABC News.
Davidson County Chancery Court Judge I’Ashea L. Myles ruled on Wednesday that the parents of students who were killed or traumatized by the March 27 massacre at the Covenant School have a legal standing to intervene on behalf of their children in lawsuits requesting evidence, including the shooter’s writings, be released to the public.
“There’s no roadmap on this,” Deborah Fisher, executive director of the Tennessee Coalition on Open Government, a nonprofit that advocates for transparency in government, told ABC News.
The Covenant School parents filed a motion to be heard in a now consolidated lawsuit filed against the Nashville Metropolitan Government by media companies, the Tennessee Firearms Association Inc. and a private investigator for the National Police Association to compel the police department’s release to the public evidence collected in an ongoing investigation of the school shooting that left three 9-year-old students and three adults, including the head of the school, dead.
An attorney for the parents said at a court hearing before Myles this week that the parents don’t want to see any of the police evidence ever made public, specifically the journals of the alleged shooter, 28-year-old Audrey Hale, who was killed by police.
Police have not commented on a motive for the attack.
Attorney Eric Osborne, who said he represents 100 families affected by the school shooting, said during Monday’s hearing that the parents fear the evidence, if made public, could inspire copycat attacks and add additional pain to the children who survived the rampage.
“We are grateful for the opportunity to enter this case on behalf of our children and loved ones,” Brent Leatherwood, a Covenant School parent who attended the Monday hearing, said in a statement to The New York Times. “Our intention is to safeguard our families and do all we can to prevent this horror from spreading to any other community.”
In their motion, the parents cited the Tennessee Crime Victims’ Bill of Rights which says victims “have the right to be free from harassment, intimidation, and abuse throughout the criminal justice system.”
“Let me be clear, what would create a slippery slope is if she (Myles) decides that victims have a right to prevent access to police records,” Fisher said. “I think we’re about to hear, according to what the lawyers said, testimony from witnesses that say why the writings of mass shooters should not be released.”
Myles has scheduled a June 8 “show cause” hearing for attorneys on both sides of the issue to make arguments.
Osborne said many of the Covenant School parents want to address the court on why they don’t want the records released. He also said he’d like to call expert witnesses to explain how such a release of information could leave the victims open to “harassment, intimidation, and abuse.”
In addition to the parents, Myles granted the Covenant Presbyterian Church and its school the right to intervene in the litigation.
During a hearing on Monday, lawyers for the church and school argued they don’t want the evidence seized in the investigation released because the material contains the school’s safety plan and other documents pertaining to health and social security records of school and church employees.
In her ruling, Myles wrote that “the court was stirred” by the argument that the public release of sensitive private documents could have “harmful and irreversible consequences.”
“We’re interested because we’re used to police being able to release things about crimes,” Fisher said. “We don’t know what will happen if victims could, basically, prevent the release of police information, any police information. If that were the case, the police’s hands will be tied on releasing information without the consent of the victim.”
Fisher noted that two days after the mass shooting, Metropolitan Nashville Police Department released body camera footage of police officers charging into the school and killing the shooter. Police officials also released surveillance camera footage of Hale firing an AR-15-style rifle through the school’s glass doors and stalking the hallways looking for victims to shoot.
“Even though it’s graphic and scary to see that, police released it and it made them look like heroes and they were. They really went into that situation, and you could see what police had to do,” Fisher said. “That video of the shooter going through the school, I don’t know what the parents think about that being released.”
John Lott, president of the Crime Prevention Research Center, a national gun rights advocacy group, told ABC News that it’s “incredibly unusual” that the Covenant School shooter’s writings haven’t already been released.
“To me, the important thing is to learn the motivation why the person picked the particular place they did to attack,” Lott said.
The Covenant parents’ motion to have a say in the release of the police evidence was filed two days after more than 60 members of the Tennessee House Republican Caucus signed a letter they sent to Chief John Drake of the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department, asking him to release Hale’s writings. The lawmakers wrote that Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee has called upon the General Assembly to hold a special session to consider public safety legislation in response to the shooting.
“In order for this special session to be successful, it is paramount we understand the behavior and motives of the Covenant School perpetrator,” the letter said.
(NEW YORK) — With Memorial Day weekend travel underway, U.S. airports recorded the highest number of passengers on Thursday since before the COVID-19 pandemic began.
The Transportation Security Administration said it screened 2,658,057 people at checkpoints across the country on Thursday, the highest daily number since 2019.
Even more passengers could be screened on Friday.
According to AAA, airports could see the busiest Memorial Day weekend since 2005.
Nearly 3.4 million people are expected to take to the skies over the holiday, up 11% from 2022 and 5.4% from 2019, according to AAA.
(HELENA, Mont.) — The federal government has made a push toward enacting policies addressing climate change in recent years, but state lawmakers in Montana are bucking the trend, recently passing a law curbing climate impact reviews in the state.
State Rep. Josh Kassmier last month introduced House Bill 971, an amendment to the Montana Environmental Policy Act that changes the process of how large projects are reviewed by preventing state regulators from considering greenhouse gas emissions and climate impacts when conducting environmental reviews.
Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte signed the bill into law on May 10.
The move comes in a state is known for its outdoor recreation and vast landscapes, with diverse terrain ranging from the Great Plains to the Rocky Mountains and several national and state parks, including a portion of Yellowstone, the first plot of land in the U.S. to be designated as federally protected.
“Montanans have a very strong connection to the land,” Anne Hedges, director of policy and legislative affairs for the Montana Environmental Information Center, told ABC News. “You don’t live here unless you like being outdoors and recreating and enjoying the scenery.”
But, in a state filled with such natural resources, the extraction of coal, oil and other natural gases and the resulting financial boon is also popular, Robin Saha, a professor of environmental studies at the University of Montana, told ABC News.
Passage of the law was a “knee-jerk reaction” after the permit for the construction of a NorthWestern Energy methane gas plant outside of Laurel, Montana, was revoked by a district judge in Yellowstone County on April 6, Saha said.
Local residents had argued for years that the power plant was poorly located and posed threats to the public health and quality of life, according to the Billings Gazette.
Methane is one of the most powerful greenhouse gas emissions, measuring more 25 times more potent than carbon dioxide in terms of how much warming it can contribute to the atmosphere over time, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Methane emissions contribute to at least a quarter of today’s climate warming, the Environmental Defense Fund says.
“I think they saw the requirements to assess greenhouse gas emissions as sort of a roadblock and decided that, since it was slowing down the process for NorthWestern energy, they would just make sure that didn’t happen again,” Saha said of the lawmakers who voted for the bill.
Jenny Harbine, managing attorney for nonprofit Earthjustice’s Northern Rockies office, described the law to ABC News as “cynical.”
She said, “Rather than taking that issue back to the state regulator, and just doing the work to look at the climate impacts, the legislature said, ‘Well, let’s not look at climate impacts at all.'”
Some environmental experts in Montana likened the new legislation to part of a long trend of climate denialism in the state, accusing state leaders of turning a blind eye to the impact on climate change to appease major industries.
“This is just an effort to bury Montanans heads in the sand,” Saha said.
Critics argue the bill also violates the 50-year-old Montana state constitution, which guarantees Montanans the right to a “clean and healthful environment.”
The state clause is the “strongest constitutional provision” in the U.S. for protecting the environment, Hedges said. It is also the strongest argument environmentalist have to challenge House Bill 971 in court, Michelle Bryan, a professor at the University of Montana’s natural resources and environmental law program, told ABC News.
The law will likely be challenged as a violation of the state constitution, Bryan said, adding that in the past when the state legislature has attempted to amend the Montana Environmental Protection Act and was challenged in court, the amendment failed.
But even if the law is upheld, it will be difficult to enforce because of the “clean and healthful environment” clause in the state constitution, Bryan said.
Critics say Montana is already experiencing the effects of climate change, pointing to a whiplash of severe weather events like constant flooding on the Yellowstone River, extreme heat, one of the largest snowpacks to fall in the last decade, decades-long drought and wildfires raging more than a month before the dry season officially begins. There have been several climate assessments done in the state on these weather events, Bryan said.
Last week, air quality alerts were issued in Montana due to the early season wildfires burning in Canada — a clear consequence of warming temperatures, critics argued.
“Montana is experiencing pretty, pretty severe, serious effects of climate change,” Saha said. “The people of Montana have an interest in good decisions being made that aren’t going to worsen climate change.”
The effects the bill has on the state’s $7.2 billion annual outdoor economy and the tens of thousands of jobs it supports will also be “severe and drastic,” Alsentzer said.
The state is currently being sued by 16 youth plaintiffs over its pro-fossil fuel policies. In the complaint brought by environmental group Our Children’s Trust, one plaintiff who engages in regular outdoor recreation said climate change was affecting ski conditions. Another plaintiff, who is Native American, said their ability to harvest berries has been impacted. Another plaintiff who works on a ranch said climate change was affecting agricultural operations. Trial will start for that case in June.
“You can’t have a rational environmental decision-making process without a consideration of climate impacts,” Harbine said. “‘See no evil’ is not an environmental policy. But that’s not what the legislature intends.”
Representatives for Kassmier and Gianforte did not immediately respond to ABC News’ requests for comment.
Proponents of the bill, including Kassmier, said the new law addresses the conflict between the legislative and judiciary branches in the state, ensuring that lawmakers, not judges, set policy on critical issues like the permitting for the NorthWestern energy plant, according to the Montana Free Press.
Kaitlin Price, a spokesperson for Gianforte, told the Montana Free Press that the bill ensures that regulation of greenhouse gas emissions remains under federal regulatory frameworks.
“House Bill 971 re-established the longstanding, bipartisan policy that analysis conducted pursuant to the Montana Environmental Policy Act does not include analysis of greenhouse gas emissions,” Price said. “The bill would allow evaluation of GHGs if it is required under federal law or if Congress amends the Clean Air Act to include carbon dioxide as a regulated pollutant.”
(NEW YORK) — The landscape of abortion rights has shifted dramatically in the 11 months since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, ending federal protections for abortion rights.
The decision left it up to states to decide how to regulate abortion services.
States in the West and Northeast have since taken steps to expand and protect abortion rights, while states across the South, Great Plains and Midwest have moved to ban or restrict abortion care.
Sixteen states have ceased nearly all abortion services.
South Carolina became the latest state to greatly restrict abortion access this week after its governor signed a six-week ban into law.
Florida could be the next state to severely restrict abortion services. If a state court upholds a 15-week abortion ban, a new six-week abortion ban will go into effect.
The ban would prohibit all abortions after fetal cardiac activity is detected, which generally occurs around six weeks of pregnancy, before most women know they are pregnant. The ban makes exceptions for when the woman’s life or health is at risk and cases of rape or incest, under certain conditions.
If allowed to go into effect, the ban will limit access to many women in the South who live in areas where Florida would have been the closest state where they could access care.
Medication abortions
Meanwhile, a court case in Texas is seeking to revoke the Federal Drug and Food Administration’s approval of one of the medications used in chemical abortions — mifepristone — across the country, even in states where abortion is protected.
The case is currently before the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals but is expected to reach the U.S. Supreme Court. Mifepristone remains available while the case continues.
Wyoming became the first state to ban medication abortions in March.
How abortion bans largely work
Nearly all bans throughout the country target physicians, making it illegal for them to provide abortion services punishable by fines, jail time and their medical licenses being revoked.
Some bans — modeled after a Texas law — make it a crime to aid women in accessing abortion care and establish civil liability against individuals who violate state bans.
Texas, which has several abortion bans in place, allows people to sue anyone who “aids or abets” an illegal abortion, to collect a bounty of at least $10,000.
Physicians warn that the anti-abortion landscape in some states will discourage doctors and future doctors from moving to states banning or restricting abortion. This could also have implications for reproductive and female health care in the states.
Residency programs in states with bans in place saw a drop in the number of OB-GYN residency applications, according to recent data from the Association of American Medical Colleges. While there was an overall decrease in the number of all residency applications submitted in 2023, the decrease was sharper in states with complete bans compared to states without restrictions, according to the data.
There was a 10.5% decrease in OB-GYN applicants in states with complete bans in 2023 compared to 2022 residency applications, according to the study. In states without restrictions, the decrease was only 5.3%, data shows.
How pregnant women are being affected
Some women have come forward with stories about how abortion bans have impact them and their access to reproductive health care. In a first since Roe was overturned, 15 Texas women filed a lawsuit against the state, saying that its near-total ban put their lives in danger.
Abortion ban challenges in other states face legal challenges from abortion providers, on behalf of their patients, abortion clinics and pro-abortion rights groups.
Kylie Beaton, a woman in Texas, told ABC News she was forced to carry a nonviable pregnancy to term, watching her son die days after he was born. Beaton was unable to access care in New Mexico because she was too far along when she received her diagnosis — past the facility’s cutoff point — despite the state allowing abortion at all stages of pregnancies.
The only other option was a facility in Colorado that provided late-term care, but Beaton and her husband could not afford the $10,000 to $15,000 it would have cost. Beaton has since joined other women suing Texas over its ban.
Women forced to travel to receive abortion care also risk having to continue further along into their pregnancies. The further along a pregnancy, the more complex, risky and expensive the abortion care.
Even with exceptions to abortion bans, women have reported having to wait until their health deteriorates or until their life is in danger before they could get care in states with near-total or total bans.
“Heartbeat” laws which prohibit abortions when cardiac activity can be detected have in some cases complicated care for women whose water breaks before their pregnancy is viable.
Kristen Anaya, who lives in Texas, told ABC News she had to wait until she went into sepsis before she could get abortion care because her fetus still had a heartbeat, despite her high fever and shaking uncontrollably for hours — both signs of an infection.
In Florida, Anya Cook was sent home from a hospital after losing nearly all her amniotic fluid because she wasn’t at a high risk for any complications, despite the risk that she could go into sepsis without delivering the fetus—which can be fatal. She later delivered in the bathroom of a hair salon, bleeding so much she lost half the blood in her body and had to be hospitalized for six days, she told ABC News.
She needed two subsequent procedures to remove the remainder of her placenta. This pregnancy was her 17th miscarriage in just two years, she told ABC News.
(INDIANAPOLIS) — The Indiana Medical Licensing Board decided late Thursday to reprimand and fine a doctor after ruling that she violated patient privacy laws by talking to a newspaper reporter about providing an abortion to a 10-year-old rape victim from neighboring Ohio.
After an hourslong hearing, the board voted to issue Indianapolis obstetrician-gynecologist Dr. Caitlin Bernard a letter of reprimand and a fine of $3,000, but refused a request from Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita to suspend Bernard’s license. The board dismissed Rokita’s allegations that Bernard violated state law by not reporting the child abuse to Indiana authorities.
Bernard has become a flashpoint in the national debate on abortion rights since performing the procedure on the Ohio girl last June, not long after the United States Supreme Court overturned the landmark Roe v. Wade case that legalized abortion nationwide nearly 50 years ago. The unprecedented Supreme Court decision put into effect an Ohio law that banned abortions after six weeks of pregnancy. Bernard said the girl was six weeks and three days into her pregnancy when she traveled across state lines to Indiana, which at the time allowed abortions to be performed up to 20 weeks after fertilization.
The physician has been under fire from Rokita, a Republican who opposes abortion, and the two have been in a dispute for months. The Indiana attorney general submitted a complaint against Bernard to the state medical licensing board in December, claiming that she violated federal and state law relating to patient privacy and reporting child abuse.
A judge then threw out a lawsuit filed by Bernard and her colleague, Dr. Amy Caldwell, against Rokita to prevent his office from accessing patients’ medical records and investigating abortion providers. The judge declined to provide a preliminary injunction against Rokita due to his referral of investigations into Bernard to the Indiana Medical Licensing Board, saying the board now has jurisdiction over the investigations.
Bernard’s lawsuit had accused Rokita of infringing on patient-doctor confidentiality and claims that he is targeting physicians who provide legal medical care including abortions, according to court filings.
An Ohio investigation ultimately resulted in a 27-year-old man being charged with the rape of the 10-year-old girl.
Bernard told the Indiana Medical Licensing Board that she complied with the investigation. She said the patient was hospitalized after being given a medication abortion so that the fetal remains could be collected and submitted as evidence.
In her testimony at a hearing in Indianapolis on Thursday, Bernard heavily criticized Ohio and Indiana politicians for politicizing the case.
“I think that if the Attorney General, Todd Rokita, had not chosen to make this his political stunt we would not be here today,” Bernard said. “I don’t think that anyone would have been looking into this story as any different than any other interview that I have ever given if it was not politicized the way that it was by public figures in our state and in Ohio.”
Bernard argued that she does not see abortion as a political issue, but rather a part of comprehensive reproductive healthcare. Bernard said she was one of only two complex family specialists in Indiana and has done interviews with reporters in the past that have not received as much attention.
Bernard told the board that she did not reveal any identifiable information about the patient to the press, but thought it was important for the public to know the impact abortion bans could have on care in the state. She said a hypothetical would not have sent across that message.
“I think that it is incredibly important for people to understand the real-world impacts of the laws of this country about abortion or otherwise,” Bernard said in her testimony. “I think it is important for people to know what patients will have to go through because of legislation that is being passed and a hypothetical does not make that impact.”
“It does not help people understand what is happening and I think people need to know, again, the real-life impacts of those laws so that they could make their own determinations about whether to support or oppose them, again. Particularly if those laws are about to be passed in their own states,” she added.
Bernard also told the board she properly reported the case of child abuse in line with her hospital’s guidelines when she reported it to Ohio authorities. Ohio is where the patient lived at the time and where the abuse occurred.
