(NEW YORK) — The pain at the pump is getting worse and has motorists asking, is there any relief in sight?
The average nationwide price of a gallon of gas surpassed an all-time high of $5 last week, according to GasBuddy. In California, the state with the highest average gas price, drivers are paying an eye-popping $6.43 per gallon, AAA data showed.
The price surge owes to the fundamental economic principle of supply and demand, experts told ABC News. Summer travel has sent Americans to the pump at a time when the global market is experiencing a shortage of crude oil supply after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which pushed millions of barrels of oil off the market.
And the current crisis exacerbates a supply crunch that has endured from a pandemic-induced production slowdown that hasn’t caught up with the renewed surge in demand, the experts said.
The sky-high prices with no relief in sight have set off sharp disagreement among public officials over what should be done in response. Republican members of Congress have faulted President Joe Biden for the price increases, citing what they’ve described as his “war on American energy.” At the same time, Biden has blamed the price surge on the Russian invasion of Ukraine, repeatedly calling it “Putin’s price hike.”
Government policy cannot meaningfully relieve the price increases in the short term, besides an additional release of oil from the strategic reserve or a gas tax holiday, each of which would likely reduce just a fraction of the cost, experts told ABC News. But steps taken now could help foster decreases over the long term and insulate the market from future disruptions, they added.
“There are not the overnight kind of solutions,” said Stewart Glickman, an energy analyst for CFRA Research. “In the longer term, they might make a difference.”
Here are some potential policy solutions to the gas price crisis and whether the experts think they would work.
Releasing more oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve
In March, the U.S. announced a commitment to release about 1 million barrels per day from its Strategic Petroleum Reserve, or SPR, over the ensuing six months — a move that aimed to alleviate some of the supply shortage and blunt price increases. The decision came alongside similar announcements from some U.S. allies.
The release of oil from the U.S. SPR is offering slight relief for the rise in the price of gasoline, some experts told ABC News. “The price of oil would be even higher without those stockpiles being used,” said Pavel Molchanov, a senior energy analyst at Raymond James.
If the U.S. decided to release even more oil from its reserves, the move could marginally slow the rise in gas prices even further, the experts said. But the Biden administration should think twice about expanding its release of reserve oil because it could drain the 700 million-barrel stockpile, enough to release 1 million barrels per day for nearly two years, Molchanov said.
“We need to be responsible about it,” Molchanov said. “We cannot use all of those stockpiles in one fell swoop.”
Encouraging domestic oil production
On Wednesday, Biden sent a letter to major oil refinery companies calling on them to take “immediate actions” to increase output. The letter accused the companies of taking advantage of the market environment to reap profits while Americans struggle to afford gas, and it mentioned the possibility of Biden invoking the Defense Production Act, which requires companies to produce goods deemed necessary for national security.
Glickman, the energy analyst at CFRA, said the move from Biden is unlikely to increase supply and lower gas prices, since the domestic industry is already operating at as high as 96% capacity. The refineries cannot add capacity in a short period of time, Glickman added.
Biden is “missing the point a little,” Glickman said. “These are industrial systems that move like battleships, not dinghies.”
U.S. oil refinery capacity stands 1 million barrels per day lower than pre-pandemic levels because several refineries have been closed or converted since early 2020, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, or EIA. Refinery inputs for the second and third quarter of this year will average 16.7 million barrels per day, the agency said.
One approach to incentivizing an increase in U.S. production includes a potential tax on oil company profits. But such a move wouldn’t remove the impediments to greater oil production capacity, Glickman said.
“Whether you do something like taxing the industry or not, it isn’t going to change how much capacity you bring back,” he said.
Some Republican members of Congress have criticized Biden for drilling permit restrictions and the shuttering of the Keystone XL Pipeline last year. But oil production in the U.S. last year was nearly identical to that seen over the final year of the Trump administration, in 2020, and greater than the amount produced in 2017 or 2018, according to data from the EIA.
U.S. oil production increased throughout the years of the Trump administration until a sharp, pandemic-induced drop that began in 2020, according to EIA data.
Loosening restrictions on oil drilling would yield long-term gains in oil supply, said James Coleman, an energy policy expert at the conservative-leaning think tank American Enterprise Institute.
“If you were to reform those, it would take a while to have an impact on oil and gas markets,” Coleman said. “On the other hand, if you’re in a hole, maybe the first step is to stop digging.”
Overall, increased U.S. oil production would help reduce gas prices over the next five or 10 years, and protect the industry from future supply shocks, the experts said. However, some experts noted that the sector’s reluctance to aggressively expand production owes to fiscal discipline imposed by shareholders as well as the continued rise of renewable energy. “We know the energy transition is coming at some point,” said Glickman, the CFRA analyst.
Gas tax holiday
A handful of states — led by both Democratic and Republican governors — have suspended their gas taxes as a means of delivering some financial relief for drivers. But the moves only reduce costs by a fraction of the price. In New York State, for instance, Gov. Kathy Hochul this month suspended a roughly 16-cent-per gallon tax. With the average price of a gallon of gas in New York standing at $5, according to AAA, the tax relief amounts to a 3.2% cost reduction.
The federal government could move forward and suspend its gas tax, which amounts to 18.4 cents per gallon. But such a move would also reduce the cost of a $5 gallon of gas by less than 5%. Still, consumers would likely prefer some relief to no relief.
But suspending the gas tax would take away a key policy tool for discouraging the use of gasoline for other purposes, and it would remove a funding source targeted specifically for infrastructure, Adam Hersh, senior economist at the liberal-leaning Economic Policy Institute, told ABC News.
“The gas tax plays a role in disincentivizing the use of gasoline for other energy sources and transportation methods, as well as being tied to funding sources for infrastructure investment,” he said.
(NEW YORK) — Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “special military operation” into neighboring Ukraine began on Feb. 24, with Russian forces invading from Belarus, to the north, and Russia, to the east. Ukrainian troops have offered “stiff resistance,” according to U.S. officials.
The Russian military has since launched a full-scale ground offensive in eastern Ukraine’s disputed Donbas region, capturing the strategic port city of Mariupol and securing a coastal corridor to the Moscow-annexed Crimean Peninsula.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:
Jun 16, 12:40 pm
‘Ukraine belongs to the European family’
In the first visit of EU leaders to the Ukrainian capital since Russia’s invasion, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, French President Emmanuel Macron, Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi and Romanian President Klaus Iohannis made clear their message of support and solidarity.
Scholz said, “My colleagues and I came here to Kyiv today with a clear message: Ukraine belongs to the European family.”
Macron added, “All four of us support [Ukraine’s] immediate EU candidacy.”
The leaders discussed the possibility of further sanctions against Russia as well as how to rebuild Ukraine after the war.
Earlier in the day, the EU leaders toured Irpin, a town northeast of Kyiv, which was hit by heavy Russian artillery early in the war.
-ABC News’ Britt Clennett and Ibtissem Guenfoud
Jun 15, 6:22 pm
Alabama lawmakers say they’re helping locate 2 former US service members missing in Ukraine
Two U.S. lawmakers said Wednesday they have been asked by the families of two former U.S. service members who volunteered to assist the Ukrainian forces for their help in locating them.
Alabama Rep. Terri Sewell said in a statement her office is helping a family locate Alexander Drueke, of Tuscaloosa, Alabama.
“Earlier this week, the mother of Alexander Drueke, a Tuscaloosa Army Veteran who volunteered to assist the Ukrainian Army in combating Russia, reached out to my office after losing contact with her son. According to his family, they have not heard from Drueke in several days,” she said in a statement.
She said her office has been in contact with the State Department, the FBI and other members of the Alabama Congressional Delegation.
Alabama Rep. Robert Aderholt said his office is helping in the search for Andy Tai Ngoc Huynh, 27, of Trinity, Alabama, after his family reached out to the congressman’s office this week.
“According to Huynh’s family, they have not been in contact with him since June 8, 2022, when he was in the Kharkiv area of Ukraine,” he said in a statement.
Aderholt said his office has reached out to the State Department and FBI to “get any information possible.”
Huynh, a former Marine, spoke to Huntsville, Alabama, ABC affiliate WAAY in April about his decision to help defend Ukraine.
“I’ve made peace with the decision. I know there’s a potential of me dying. I’m willing to give my life for what I believe is right,” he told the station.
White House spokesman John Kirby told reporters Wednesday afternoon that he “can’t confirm the reports” of two Americans captured in Ukraine.
“We’ll do the best we can to monitor this and see what we can learn about it,” he said. “Obviously, if it’s true, we’ll do everything we can to get them safely back home.”
The State Department also is aware of the “unconfirmed” reports, a spokesperson said.
“We are closely monitoring the situation and are in contact with Ukrainian authorities,” the spokesperson said. “Due to privacy considerations, we have no further comment.”
The State Department has warned U.S. citizens against traveling to Ukraine during the war and that Russian security officials could be “singling out” U.S. citizens.
-ABC News’ Benjamin Stein, Ben Gittleson and Shannon Crawford
Jun 15, 4:20 pm
100 Ukrainian military deaths per day in line with US estimates: Milley
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Mark Milley, said Ukrainian officials’ estimate of 100 Ukrainian military deaths per day is “in the ballpark” with U.S. estimates.
Milley would not disclose exactly how many more artillery pieces the Russians have than the Ukrainians, saying that was classified, but he confirmed that they do outnumber the Ukrainians.
Milley noted that while the Russians are using large numbers of artillery to target civilian and urban areas, Ukrainians are using “much better artillery techniques” on the battlefield. Milley explained how the mortars, howitzers and HIMARS systems will give the Ukrainians a more effective combined layered system to strike at the Russians from short, medium and long distances.
-ABC News’ Luis Martinez
Jun 15, 4:07 pm
More Ukraine aid to come on ‘fairly routine basis’: Kirby
John Kirby, joining Wednesday’s White House press briefing in his new role as National Security Council coordinator, said the $1 billion in military aid announced Wednesday is the first to come from the $40 billion aid package that was passed by Congress in May.
Looking ahead, Kirby said, “you will see additional packages” coming on a “fairly routine basis.”
“We want to meter it out so that we’re in lockstep with the Ukrainians and where they are on the battlefield and what they need in real time,” he said.
-ABC News’ Justin Ryan Gomez
Jun 15, 1:08 pm
Biden announces additional $1B in military, $225M in humanitarian assistance
President Joe Biden has announced $1 billion more in U.S. military aid for Ukraine.
Biden said he spoke with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy Wednesday morning and that the aid will include “additional artillery and coastal defense weapons, as well as ammunition for the artillery and advanced rocket systems.”
Biden also announced $225 million in humanitarian assistance “to help people inside Ukraine, including by supplying safe drinking water, critical medical supplies and health care, food, shelter, and cash for families to purchase essential items,” according to a statement.
-ABC News’ Justin Ryan Gomez
Jun 15, 6:49 am
Biden promises to free blocked Ukrainian grain
President Joe Biden said on Tuesday the United States is working with European allies to remove blocked Ukrainian grain by rail.
Speaking at the 29th AFL-CIO Quadrennial Constitutional Convention, Biden said 20 million tons of grain are stuck in Ukraine and need to be exported to reduce global food prices.
As the grain cannot be exported via the Black Sea due to the constant threat of Russian attacks and explosions, the U.S. and its partners are planning to build granaries on the Ukrainian border, Biden said.
The railways present an alternative to Ukrainian coastal waters of the Azov and Black seas that are in need of demining. The area of their contamination with explosives can be up to 19,000 square kilometers, Ministry of Internal Affairs spokesperson Alyona Matveeva said on Tuesday.
The full demining of Ukraine can take from five to 10 years with the help of international experts, Matveeva added. To date, about 80% of explosive devices have been removed and neutralized in the Kyiv region, she said.
Jun 15, 6:31 am
Russia turns to outdated missiles
As Russia’s stock of modern high-precision missiles depletes, its invading forces are turning to obsolete Soviet models to strike targets in Ukraine, Yuriy Ignat, spokesperson for the Ukrainian Air Force, said at a press briefing on Tuesday.
“Recently, there has been a tendency for Russia to save high-precision, expensive missiles. And now the enemy is increasingly using Soviet types of missiles,” Ignat said.
Some of these missiles are extremely powerful, the spokesman added, and their destructive parts can weigh up to 900 kilograms.
“Their main drawback is that they do not always fly at their intended target and very often destroy civilian objects with human casualties,” Ignat said.
According to Ignat, Ukrainian anti-aircraft missile forces have shot down more than 500 enemy air targets since the start of the full-scale Russian invasion. These include Russian cruise missiles, UAVs, planes and helicopters.
Arnold Schwarzenegger, the former governor of California, weighed in on the question of Russian missiles on Tuesday when he said that Europe is partly to blame for financing Russia’s war against Ukraine.
Addressing a climate conference in Vienna via a livestream, Schwarzenegger said the about 1,300 missiles Russia fired into Ukrainian cities during the first two months of the war cost 7.7 billion euros.
“Now that’s a lot. But during the same time, Europe sent to Russia 44 billion euros for fuel,” the former governor told attendees of the Austrian World Summit. “We have blood on our hands, because we are financing the war. We have to stop lying to ourselves.”
On the other end of the frontline, Ukraine is also grappling with a pressing lack of weapons. The Ukrainian forces received only 10% of the weapons “we said we needed,” Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Malyar told local media on Tuesday.
“Now matter how much effort Ukraine makes, we will not be able to win the war without the help of the West,” Malyar added.
The deputy minister said Ukrainian fighters can afford to spend only about 6,000 shells a day, while the Russians use about 10 times more. The limited number of available weapons and ammunition is crippling Ukraine’s ability to launch a counteroffensive at the front, military expert Oleh Zhdanov said, according to local outlets.
Speaking at an online press conference for Danish media on Tuesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy repeated his plea for Western weapons that he said are vital for the liberation of occupied territories.
The speed of de-occupation “depends on the supply of weapons to Ukraine, and any delays in this matter threaten stagnation on the front,” Zelenskyy said.
Jun 14, 1:20 pm
Russian, Belarusian tennis players can compete at US Open under neutral flag
Russian and Belarusian tennis players, who are banned from Wimbledon, will be allowed to compete in this year’s U.S. Open, but only under a neutral flag, the U.S. Tennis Association said.
The USTA said it “previously condemned, and continues to condemn, the unprovoked and unjust invasion of Ukraine by Russia.”
Russian player Daniil Medvedev, the current No. 1 player in the world, won last year’s U.S. Open.
Jun 14, 6:37 am
Ukraine pleads for heavy weapons ahead of NATO meeting
The only way to end the war in Ukraine, either on the battlefield or behind the negotiation table, is a parity of weapons, Mykhailo Podoliak, an adviser to the head of the Ukrainian Presidential Office, said on Monday.
“Being straightforward — to end the war we need heavy weapons parity,” Podoliak said on Twitter.
According to the presidential adviser, Ukraine’s military wish list includes 1,000 howitzers, 300 multiple launch rocket systems, 500 tanks, 2,000 armored vehicles and 1,000 drones.
“Negotiations are possible from a strong position, which requires parity of weapons,” Podoliak said. “There is simply no other way.”
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba echoed Podoliak’s plea for weapons on Monday in a tweet that recounted Ukraine’s recent military triumphs achieved with limited resources.
“Ukraine has proven it can punch well above its weight and win important battles against all odds,” Kuleba said, pointing at victories in the battles of Kyiv, Chernihiv, Sumy and Kharkiv. “Imagine what Ukraine can do with sufficient tools,” the Foreign Minister added. Kuleba urged Ukraine’s partners “to set a clear goal of Ukrainian victory and speed up deliveries of heavy weapons.”
Podoliak said a meeting of NATO defense ministers will be held in Brussels on June 15.
“We are waiting for a decision” on the weapons, Podoliak said.
The group, known as the Ukraine Defence Contact Group, will convene a meeting for the third time in a bid “to ensure that we’re providing Ukraine what Ukraine needs right now,” U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III said at a press briefing in Bangkok, Thailand, on Monday.
Austin, who will be in attendance in Brussels, said that Ukraine needs support “in order to defend against Russia’s unjustified and unprovoked assault.” The secretary of Defense noted that looking ahead, Ukraine will require help “to build and sustain robust defenses so that it will be able to defend itself in the coming months and years.”
In his Monday evening address, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called on Ukrainians to tell people in the occupied territories “that the Ukrainian army will definitely come.”
“Tell them about Ukraine. Tell them the truth. Say that there will be liberation,” the president said.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian officials played down threats of possible food shortages in the country due to the ongoing conflict. While Ukraine lost 25% of its sown area as a result of Russia’ full-scale invasion, the country’s food security was “in no way” threatened, Taras Vysotsky, the first deputy minister of Agrarian Policy, said at a press briefing for Ukrainian media on Monday.
“Despite the loss of 25% of sown areas, the structure of crops this year as a whole is more than sufficient to ensure consumption, which in turn also decreased due to mass displacement and external migration,” Vysotsky said.
The deputy minister added that Ukraine has “already imported about 70% of essential fertilizers, 60% of plant protection products and about a third of the required amount of fuel” before the war erupted in late February. According to Vysotsky, current sowing volumes are enough to ensure domestic consumption and even exports.
Jun 13, 9:26 am
Bodies of tortured men exhumed in Bucha
Another mass grave has been dug up in Bucha, uncovering the bodies of seven men who authorities believe were tortured and killed during the bloody occupation of the city in March.
Police told ABC News their hands were tied with ropes behind their backs and they were shot in the knees and head.
“They were killed in a cruel way,” police spokesperson Iryna Pryanyshnykova said. “These were civilian victims. The people here were killed by Russian soldiers and later they were just put into a grave to try to hide this war crime.”
It’s not clear why the men were killed, Pryanyshnykova said.
She said experts will analyze DNA to identify the victims.
-ABC News’ Britt Clennett
Jun 13, 6:24 am
Zelenskyy: Ukraine fighting for ‘every meter’ of Severodonetsk
Russian forces have pushed the Armed Forces of Ukraine out of the center of Severodonetsk, Ukrainian officials said.
“They are pressing in Severodonetsk, where very fierce fighting is going on — literally for every meter,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in an address on Sunday evening.
Russian forces now control about 70% of the city, as intense shelling makes mass evacuation and the transportation of goods impossible, Sergiy Haidai, another Ukrainian official, said.
Around 500 people, including 40 children, are sheltering in the city’s Azot chemical plant, Haidai said.
While the Ukrainians try to organize their evacuation, authorities of the self-declared Donetsk People’s Republic have given an ultimatum to Ukrainian troops in the city.
“They have two options: either follow the example of their colleagues and give up, or die. They have no other option,” said Eduard Basurin, deputy head of the People’s Militia Department of the DPR.
-ABC News’ Yulia Drozd and Tanya Stukalova
Jun 12, 5:33 pm
Zelenskyy sends virtual message to Sean Penn’s CORE benefit
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy addressed the annual Hollywood fundraiser for actor Sean Penn’s nonprofit Community Organized Relief Effort (CORE) Saturday night with a powerful video message urging people to continue to support Ukraine in its war against Russia.
“All of you have heard about the horrors that Ukraine is going through. Tens of thousands of explosions and shots, hundreds of thousands wounded and killed, millions who have lost their homes,” Zelenskyy said in his virtual speech. “All of this is not a logline for a horror film. All of this is our reality.”
Zelenskyy’s video message included footage showing missiles striking homes and apartment complexes in Ukraine, civilians dead in the streets of Ukrainian cities and children playing in parks amid the backdrop of bombed buildings.
Among those attending the CORE fundraiser, held at the Hollywood Palladium in Los Angles, were Penn and CORE co-founder Ann Lee, former President Bill Clinton, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, singer John Legend, and actors Patrick Stewart and Sharon Stone.
The group said the event raised more than $2.5 million for CORE’s disaster relief and preparedness work, including its urgent humanitarian response in Ukraine.
Zelenskyy noted that Penn traveled to Ukraine at the start of the Russian invasion and witnessed the atrocities firsthand. He thanked Penn and his group for the continued support for Ukraine.
“We have been resisting it for 107 days in a row,” Zelenskyy said of Russia’s aggression in Ukraine. “We can stop it together. Support Ukraine, because Ukraine is fighting for the whole world, for democracy, for freedom, for life.”
Jun 12, 4:17 pm
Russia’s firepower superiority 10 times that of Ukraine’s in Luhansk: Military chief
Ukraine’s Armed Forces Commander-in-Chief Valeriy Zaluzhny said Sunday that he told his American counterpart, Gen. Mark Milley, U.S. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, that Russian firepower superiority in the Luhansk region is far greater than that of Ukrainian forces.
Zaluzhny said that during a briefing he told Milley that Russian forces are concentrating their efforts in the north of the Luhansk region, where they are using artillery “en masse” and their firepower superiority is 10 times that of Ukraine’s.
“Despite everything, we keep holding our positions,” Zaluzhny said.
Zaluzhny also said Russia has deployed up to seven battalion tactical groups in Severdonetsk, a city in the Luhansk region. He said Russian shelling of residential areas in Kharkiv in northeast Ukraine has resumed.
Russian forces destroyed a second bridge leading into Severodonetsk and are now targeting a third bridge in an effort to completely cut off the city, Luhansk region Gov. Sergiy Haidai said Sunday. Ukraine’s army still controls around one third of the city, he said.
Haidai said that Ukrainian forces are still holding onto the Azot chemical plant in Severodonetsk, where around 500 civilians are taking shelter.
If Severodonetsk falls, Lysychansk will be the only city in the Luhansk region that remains under Ukraine’s control.
Zaluzhny said that as of Sunday, the front line of the war stretched 1,522 miles and that active combat was taking place on at least 686 miles of the front line.
Zaluzhny said that during his briefing with Milley, he reiterated Ukraine’s urgent request for more 155 mm caliber artillery systems.
Jun 12, 12:48 pm
Russian cruise missile attack confirmed in western Ukraine
Russia claims a cruise missile strike destroyed a large warehouse in western Ukraine storing weapons supplied to the Ukrainians by the United States and European allies.
While police in the Ternopil region of Ukraine, where at least one cruise missile hit, told ABC News that no weapons were destroyed, the region’s governor said part of a military facility was damaged.
Ternopil’s governor Volodymyr Trush posted a video showing widespread damage from what he said were four Russian missiles launched Saturday from the Black Sea. Trush said 22 people were wounded, including a 12-year-old child, in the missile strikes.
In addition to the military facility, Trush said four five-story residential apartment buildings were damaged. One of the missiles hit a gas pipeline, he said.
Russia’s defense ministry said Kalibr high presicion sea-based, long-range missiles struck near Chortkiv in the Ternopil province and destroyed a large warehouse full of anti-tank missile systems, portable anti-aircraft missile systems and artillery shells supplied by the United States and European countries.
(WASHINGTON) — The Jan. 6 committee is holding its third public hearing of the month Thursday with the focus on the pressure campaign on then-Vice President Mike Pence.
The committee says it will detail efforts from then-President Donald Trump and his allies before and on Jan. 6 to get Pence to reject electoral votes Congress was certifying — as part of what it says was a plot to overturn the presidential election.
Please check back for updates. All times Eastern:
Jun 16, 10:29 am
Thursday to focus on Trump pressuring Pence
The House select committee investigating the attack on the Capitol will convene its third public hearing of the month at 1 p.m. with members set to focus on how former President Donald Trump pressured then-Vice President Mike Pence with “relentless effort” to intervene to help overturn the 2020 election.
“President Trump had no factual basis for what he was doing and he had been told it was illegal,” Vice Chair Liz Cheney said in a video teasing Thursday’s hearing. “Despite this, President Trump plotted with a lawyer named John Eastman and others to overturn the outcome of the election on Jan. 6.”
A key component of evidence is never-before-seen photos of Pence and his family taken by an official White House photographer on Jan. 6 itself. In one — obtained by ABC News’ Jonathan Karl ahead of the hearing — second lady Karen Pence is seen hurriedly closing the curtains of the vice president’s ceremonial office at the Capitol, apparently fearful the mob outside could see where they were.
Last week, at the prime-time kickoff to this round of hearings, Cheney teased testimony to come around Trump’s awareness of rioters’ “hang Mike Pence” chants. Quoting from witness testimony, Cheney said Trump suggested as the attack was underway: “Maybe our supporters have the right idea. Mike Pence deserves it.”
(STURGIS, Mich.) — Less than two weeks after restarting production at its Sturgis, Michigan plant, Abbott said it has once again been forced to halt baby formula production after thunderstorms flooded part of the facility.
“These torrential storms produced significant rainfall in a short period of time, overwhelming the city’s stormwater system in Sturgis, Michigan, and resulting in flooding in parts of the city, including areas of our plant,” an Abbott spokesperson told ABC News. “As a result, Abbott has stopped production of its EleCare specialty formula that was underway to assess damage caused by the storm and clean and re-sanitize the plant. We have informed FDA and will conduct comprehensive testing in conjunction with the independent third party to ensure the plant is safe to resume production.”
Abbott’s plant was offline for roughly four months after serious quality control and contamination concerns. Its massive recall and plant shutdown in February exacerbated the nationwide formula crisis American families are still experiencing.
Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Robert Califf said he has personally spoken with Abbott’s CEO, Robert Ford, saying they discussed their “shared desire to get the facility up and running again as quickly as possible.”
Califf added that the storms are a “reminder that natural weather events can also cause unforeseen supply chain disruptions.”
“I want to reassure consumers the all-of-government work to increase supply means we’ll have more than enough product to meet current demand,” Califf said in a series of tweets.
Abbott had promised to start putting out its hypoallergenic formula EleCare to consumers around June 20. Infants with particular nutritional needs will have to wait longer for an infusion of formula from Abbott, the largest domestic manufacturer of infant formula prior to its recall.
“Once the plant is re-sanitized and production resumes, we will again begin EleCare production, followed by specialty and metabolic formulas,” the spokesperson told ABC News. “In parallel, we will work to restart Similac production at the plant as soon as possible.”
Meanwhile, Abbott said it still has “ample existing supply of EleCare and most of its specialty and metabolic formulas to meet needs for these products until new product is available.”
It said these products “are being released to consumers in need in coordination with healthcare professionals.”
“Abbott will have produced 8.7 million pounds of infant formula in June for the U.S., or the equivalent of 168.2 million 6-ounce feedings. This is 95% of what we produced in January, prior to the recall and does not include production from Sturgis,” the company spokesperson said.
Emilee McGovern/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images
(UVALDE, Texas) — Several Texas school districts are requiring students to use clear backpacks in the wake of last month’s deadly shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde.
Ingleside Independent School District, near Corpus Christi, became one of the latest to announce the new policy this week, after its board of trustees unanimously approved updating the district’s dress code policy to require clear backpacks starting in the 2022-2023 school year.
“Safety is a top priority for Ingleside ISD and is on the forefront of concern for school districts across Texas and our nation,” the district said in a statement Tuesday.
The policy is also expected to aid in processing students through metal detector lines at its secondary campuses, the district said.
Several other school districts have also implemented clear backpack policies in the wake of the May 24 shooting, in which 19 students and two teachers at Robb Elementary School were killed.
Harper ISD, about 90 miles northwest of San Antonio, announced earlier this month that it will implement a clear backpack policy for students starting in the fall “in light of the recent school shooting, and in an effort to do everything we can to increase safety for our students and staff.”
Two local businesses donated a backpack for every student in the district.
Greenville ISD, located about 45 miles northeast of the Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan area, also said it will require clear backpacks starting in the fall, among other safety measures. The policy is a “common-sense measure is becoming more common at both school and public events,” the district said.
Additional security measures announced this month include having one front access point for entry and requiring that all classroom doors remain locked at all times, the district said.
The new measures also came a month after a fake pipe bomb was found at the district’s high school. The school was evacuated and a juvenile was taken into custody over the incident, school officials said.
Clear backpacks have become common in the wake of school shootings. Several other Texas school districts already require them among their security measures.
Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, temporarily required its students to use clear backpacks after a deadly 2018 shooting on campus. Some students questioned the policy’s effectiveness and raised privacy concerns at the time.
Oxford Community Schools in Michigan also required clear backpacks after four students were fatally shot in a mass shooting at Oxford High School last year.
Following the massacre at Uvalde, in which the shooter entered the school through an unlocked door, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott suggested that schools conduct weekly door checks, among other security measures. He also requested that state lawmakers convene special legislative committees to make recommendations on school safety, among other areas.
Lowell Police Department via John Guilfoil Public Relations
(LOWELL, Mass.) — The search for a missing 3-year-old Massachusetts boy who vanished from his babysitter’s backyard ended Wednesday afternoon with the grim discovery of the child’s body in a pond, authorities said.
The body of the toddler, identified by authorities as Harry Kkonde, was found in a pond at a Christmas tree farm 650 feet from the babysitter’s home in Lowell, about 30 miles northwest of Boston, Middlesex County District Attorney Marian Ryan said at news conference.
“I want to be clear that we have no idea how Harry came to reach that pond, where he might have been or how long it might have taken him to reach that pond,” Ryan said.
The child was reported missing at about 9:30 a.m. on Tuesday. Police said a search for the boy was immediately launched.
Lowell Police Acting Superintendent Barry Golner said earlier Wednesday that investigators had found no evidence suggesting foul play in the boy’s disappearance.
About 200 law enforcement officers were involved in the search Wednesday, including K-9 units, divers, drone operators, helicopter crews and officers on horseback and all-terrain vehicles, police said.
“This is obviously every parents’ worst nightmare: a child who disappears for a very short period of time, the excruciating hours of the search and then the recovery of his body,” Ryan said.
The boy was found in roughly 5-feet of water near the edge of the murky pond that divers searched on Tuesday, ABC affiliate station WCVB in Boston reported.
Volunteer searcher Kylie Bouley told WCVB that she was looking for Harry in a cornfield near the pond when the boy’s body was discovered.
“I was looking for him in the cornfield and all I heard is, ‘He’s gone. He’s in the pond. We’re going to take him out. Please get out of the cornfield,'” Bouley said.
Harry was last seen wearing a long-sleeve maroon shirt and gray pants with a white stripe, police said.
“He’s active. He likes going outside. When he’s at home, he goes to the yard and plays. He’s a healthy kid but he can’t speak. He’s trying to learn how to speak, but he can’t talk,” Harry’s father told WCVB in a phone interview prior to his son’s body being discovered.
Upon getting the call of the missing child, officers went to the babysitter’s home in the Pawtucketville section of northwest Lowell and immediately began searching the neighborhood. When they found no sign of the boy, they expanded the search to the nearby Lowell-Dracut-Tyngsboro State Forest and the Merrimack River.
The child’s parents dropped him off at his babysitter’s house at about 7 a.m. Tuesday, police said. At least one neighbor saw the child playing in his babysitter’s backyard around 9:15 a.m., police said.
Lowell police notified the community of the missing boy on Tuesday by using a reverse 911 system to contact residents and asked them to call the police immediately if they believe they had seen the boy or had information about his whereabouts.
(NEW YORK) — Looking at data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention would give the impression that COVID-19 is generally under control in Texas.
The federal agency’s map of levels of COVID-19 spread in the community shows most counties in the state are classified as “low” or “medium.”
But public health experts said this doesn’t tell the true story and that case counts are artificially low in Texas due to low levels of testing reported to public health officials.
“There are limitations to this metric by the CDC,” Dr. Luis Ostrosky-Zeichner, an infectious disease specialist at UTHealth Houston and Memorial Hermann Texas Medical Center, told ABC News. “The primary diver for the first part of the metric is the number of cases and then you get into hospitalizations and percentage of occupancy by COVID-19 patients.”
He continued, “Until you see a high number of hospitalizations, you don’t even get to the medium level. And we know that there has to be significant underreporting at this point for the number of cases.”
According to the CDC, as of June 7 — the latest date for which data is available — Texas is currently performing 20,535 new COVID-19 tests per day with a seven-day rolling average of 24,352.
This is half as many as the average of 55,842 tests being performed three months ago.
Doctors told ABC News that testing is very different at this point in the pandemic, with fewer people testing at government-run sites and more people testing at home.
“Many people have access to testing through other means rather than going through one of the government screening centers,” Dr. Robert Atmar, a professor of medicine and infectious diseases at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, told ABC News. “People have access to home kits; they can buy them at the pharmacy.”
This means some Americans are testing positive for COVID-19 on at-home rapid tests and not reporting their results to public health officials either because there is no mechanism to report results, or they just fail to do so.
Additionally, if people need treatments, such as antiviral pills like Paxlovid, they are getting prescriptions from their doctor rather than going to a hospital to receive them, doctors said.
“This is partly good news because people are not getting sick enough to require health care, but the downside is you cannot track the amount of disease in the community,” Atmar said.
This means the CDC data on COVID-19 community levels is somewhat unreliable.
“The current national risk map may provide a false sense of relief,” said Dr. John Brownstein, an epidemiologist at Boston Children’s Hospital and an ABC News contributor. “Many areas with high rates of transmission are deemed to be low risk only because of data reporting gaps and lags.”
He added, “The shift to home testing compounds these issues as that data is unlikely to make it into public health surveillance systems.”
Experts said this is one reason why wastewater data, which shows virus levels in wastewater samples, may be a more accurate representation of levels of COVID-19 in a community.
Although wastewater data is not representative of the entire U.S. — with many areas not even having treatment plants — it does give an idea of hidden waves across the country.
According to data from a Houston wastewater monitoring dashboard — run jointly by the Houston Health Department and Rice University — levels of COVID-19 in wastewater samples in the city, as of June 6, are 502% compared to baseline in July 2020.
This is similar to levels seen during the delta surge, which peaked at 539% compared to levels in July 2020.
Dr. Wesley Long, medical director of microbiology at Houston Methodist Hospital, told ABC News that because transmission levels are high — not low or medium as indicated by the CDC in most Texas counties — it’s important for more people to get tested.
“What I would like to see change is for people to still be mindful,” he said. “Certainly, if they have symptoms, even if they’re mild symptoms, to get tested so that they know they’re negative or so that they can take the proper precautions and don’t continue to spread the virus.”
Dr. James Cutrell, an infectious disease physician at UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, told ABC News he recommends people not just look at the CDC transmission map but also data on trends to see if cases are rising or falling and assess their personal risk.
“People who are fully vaccinated and boosted may be able to be more liberal in terms of what they feel comfortable whereas others who may have medical conditions or live with those who are more medically vulnerable need to consider being a bit more cautious,” Cutrell said.
Rasid Necati Aslim/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
(LONDON) — Kevin Spacey appeared in a London court on Thursday, days after The Metropolitan Police formally charged the actor with four charges of sexual assaults against three men and one charge of causing a person to engage in penetrative sexual activity without consent.
Spacey arrived at London’s Westminster Magistrates’ Court at around 10 a.m. on Thursday morning and was greeted by throngs of photographers and members of the media as he made his way into the building.
Spacey made no comment to the media on his way to court and the proceedings are not open to the public.
The Metropolitan Police formally charged Spacey, 62, on Monday.
The U.K.’s Crown Prosecution Service in May had authorized the charges against the Academy Award-winning actor, saying they stemmed from alleged incidents in London and Gloucestershire over a period of about eight years.
Prosecutors in May detailed four sexual assault charges linked to two alleged assaults against the same man in March 2005, and two alleged assaults against separate men in August 2008 and in April 2013. The final charge was linked to an alleged incident in August 2008, against the same man Spacey was alleged to have assaulted that same month, prosecutors said.
“The CPS has also authorised one charge of causing a person to engage in penetrative sexual activity without consent,” Rosemary Ainslie, head of the Special Crime Division, said in a statement at the time. “The authority to charge follows a review of the evidence gathered by the Metropolitan Police in its investigation.”
Prosecutors said it was “extremely important” that there be “no reporting, commentary or sharing of information online which could in any way prejudice these proceedings.”
“The Crown Prosecution Service reminds all concerned that criminal proceedings against Mr. Spacey are active and that he has the right to a fair trial,” Ainslie said in a statement.
Spacey, who served as artistic director of London’s Old Vic theater from 2004 until 2015, told ABC News’ Good Morning America in late May that he would “voluntarily” appear in court in London.
“I very much appreciate the Crown Prosecution Service’s statement in which they carefully reminded the media and the public that I am entitled to a fair trial, and innocent until proven otherwise,” Spacey told GMA in May. “While I am disappointed with their decision to move forward, I will voluntarily appear in the U.K. as soon as can be arranged and defend myself against these charges, which I am confident will prove my innocence.”
(WASHINGTON) — Top negotiators on a bipartisan gun safety framework huddled behind closed doors for several hours Wednesday evening to try to solve remaining differences on the package, but the group’s effort to expedite passage of an agreement is stalled, at least for the moment.
Since a group of 10 Democrats and 10 Republicans announced an agreement on a framework of proposals aimed at curbing gun violence in the wake of mass shootings in Uvalde, Texas, and Buffalo, New York, on Sunday, a bipartisan group of senators has been working to speedily turn the list of ideas into a bill ready for consideration on the Senate floor next week. But two provisions, one focused on incentivizing states to implement violence prevention programs, and another dealing with closing the so-called “boyfriend loophole,” are now plaguing negotiations, chief Republican negotiator John Cornyn, R-Texas, said Wednesday.
“If we can settle these two issues, I think we’re on our way, but I am concerned now given the time it takes and the need to complete our work really by tomorrow that we’ve got to settle these issues,” Cornyn told reporters Wednesday morning.
When negotiators emerged from their meeting Wednesday evening, they noted some progress, but said discussions on these two major issues will need to continue Thursday.
“We did make progress,” Cornyn said. “But we’re not there yet.”
“We are continuing to make progress,” Sen. Chris Murphy, the top Democratic negotiator, said after Cornyn’s departure. “This is a very tight timeline to land some very serious issues.”
Senators are feeling the time crunch as they try to meet an ambitious deadline to turn their announced framework into law. If senators wish to see a vote on their package before the Senate departs for a two-week recess on June 27, they need to turn their framework agreement into bill text that other Senators can review and vote on.
Challenges over how to create a program to support or incentivize state violence prevention programs — including red flag laws designed to temporarily seize weapons from those deemed by a court to be a danger to themselves or others — have been bubbling up in the Republican conference since the proposed framework was announced.
According to Cornyn, negotiators are struggling over whether funds made available to states to support red flag programs should also be available to states with other types of violence prevention programs, like veterans’ courts, mental health courts and assisted outpatient treatment programs.
Some Republicans have long struggled with red flag programs out of concern that these provisions violate the due process rights of those accused of being a threat. During a closed-door Republican conference meeting on Tuesday, several Republican lawmakers outside of the negotiating group told ABC News they had concerns about provisions supporting red flag laws.
Cornyn, according to numerous participants, repeatedly assured his colleagues that there would be no federal mandate to implement the laws. He also echoed an earlier speech in which he said their impending legislation would ensure that any state that does take federal funding would be required to ensure the due process rights of anyone potentially falling under a red flag order, also called an “extreme risk protection order.”
“Most of the discussion was around the red flag issue, and that is my greatest concern as well that we do it right,” said Sen. Kevin Cramer, R-ND, on Tuesday. “I think we’re more interested in the red wave than we are in red flags, quite honestly, as Republicans and we have a pretty good opportunity to do that,” seemingly a reference to the possibility of Republicans taking control of Congress this fall.
Still, Democrats are optimistic there’s a solution on the red flag issue. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-CT., who has been leading the group’s efforts on red flag laws, said Wednesday that negotiators have already been in discussion on a “very doable” solution.
“We need to support every possible way to intervene in crisis before they produce violence. And red flag laws need investment of hundreds of millions of dollars for them as an incentive but also to implement them and at the same time we can have a variety of other crisis intervention mode that help save lives,” Blumenthal said.
There’s also been issues over efforts to modify law to close “boyfriend loophole.” Under current law, unmarried partners who commit domestic violence are not barred from purchasing a firearm, though spouses who perpetrate domestic violence are.
Negotiators are struggling with how to appropriately define a “boyfriend” or partner in this language to include those who are unmarried.
Democrats earlier Wednesday sought to downplay Cornyn’s concern about the two outstanding issues.
Democratic negotiator Sen. Chris Coons, D-DE, chalked both the boyfriend loophole issue and the red-flag law snag up to “modest negotiation challenges,” noting that issues always arise when frameworks are being turned to legislative bill text.
“All we have to do is write text that is true to the framework,” Murphy said. “You know, we all made a commitment to each other that we were supportive of the framework and then we’re going to write that into law. I have continued confidence that we can write that framework into text and we can have that for our colleagues next week.”
While negotiators continue to work on legislative text, there is a growing contingent of Republicans who have signaled willingness to supportive the framework.
Republican Leader Mitch McConnell on Tuesday said he is “comfortable” with the bipartisan gun safety reform framework and will be “supportive” of the bill “if the legislation ends up reflecting what the framework indicates.”
“My view of the framework if it leads to a piece of legislation I intend to support it I think it is progress for the country and I think the bipartisan group has done the best they can to get total support and the background check enhancement for that age group I think is a step in the right direction,” McConnell said.
And other members in his conference are also signaling willingness to support the proposal.
“I just need to see the text…want to see the details. The framework I think looks good, but it’s going to be what the details are,” said Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-WV, on Tuesday.
Getting text to members before the weekend will be key, Cornyn said. And he’s still hopeful it can be done.
“We need to tie a nice thick ribbon around everything,” Cornyn told reporters. “Because we have to have an end to this to write the text in order to be able to share it with colleagues and provide it to the majority leader to put it on the floor.”
(NEW YORK) — Down a dirt road, inside a church in Dallas, Texas, the cellphone of Zuleka Edwards buzzes constantly.
“I was just trying to seek termination of a pregnancy,” one caller tells Edwards, abortion coordinator for The Afiya Center, the only Black-women-led abortion fund in North Texas. “I just need some assistance, OK, if that’s possible.”
Edwards gives the caller information about scheduling an appointment at an abortion clinic, explaining that even though she has already had an ultrasound, she’ll be required to get another under Texas law.
“If you have any questions, just reach out and I’ll be able to assist you,” Edwards ends the call.
It’s a conversation Edwards says she has multiple times a day with women throughout Texas who are trying to access abortion care in a state with one of the most extreme abortion laws in the country.
The phone calls, according to Edwards, have come with increasing frequency and urgency since September, when that law, Senate Bill 8, took effect in Texas, banning nearly all abortions after six weeks of pregnancy. Before the law, abortions up to 22 weeks of pregnancy were allowed in Texas, with restrictions.
“Sometimes there’s just not enough time in the day,” said Edwards, whom ABC News saw taking calls from women in need while doing laundry at home and caring for her three kids.
Edwards, 35, said she never turns down a woman’s request for help because she knows personally what they are going through. The Texas native got her first abortion at the age of 17, a decision she said she felt “forced” into by her mom and one she said for years filled her with shame.
After going on to give birth to three children and get married, Edwards had a second abortion in Dallas.
At the time, Edwards said she was suffering from postpartum depression after the birth of her third child and knew she and her husband did not have the financial resources to raise a fourth.
“I knew for sure that whatever I was going to do, it was going to be what I needed to do,” Edwards said. “It wasn’t going to be from shame.”
‘Texas is already a post-Roe world’
Texas is known for doing everything bigger, and that has included the fight over abortion.
“We do the bad, the wrong stuff better. We do the great stuff better,” said Marsha Jones, founder of The Afiya Center, which helps provide women with funding and logistics for abortion care. “So there’s nothing bigger than here.”
After years of chipping away at abortion rights, Texas in 2013 enacted strict requirements on abortion clinics, including that abortion providers have admitting privileges at a nearby hospital. By the time the measure was struck down by the Supreme Court in 2016, the number of abortion clinics in the state had shrunk from around 40 to 19.
Since last year, when SB8 went into effect, those remaining clinics have only been allowed to provide abortions before “cardiac activity or the steady and repetitive rhythmic contraction of the fetal heart” can be detected, which can be as early as six weeks into a pregnancy. The law includes an exception for medical emergencies but makes no exceptions for pregnancies due to rape or incest.
The result of SB8, according to abortion rights advocates on the ground, is that Texas for nearly the past year has been operating as a sort of test case for a post-Roe America, a version of the country if Roe v. Wade — the landmark 1973 Supreme Court decision that declared abortion a protected right — is overturned, as is expected to happen based on a draft court opinion leaked in early May.
If the Supreme Court rules, as expected, in favor of a Mississippi law that bans abortions after 15 weeks, abortion will go from being a federally protected right to one decided by each state.
“For those of us here in Texas, that’s already been our reality,” said Paige Alexandria, an Austin-based hotline intake counselor for the National Abortion Federation. “We’re already living in a time where most people can’t access the care they need in their own city, where they have to travel out of state.”
Each month since SB8 went into effect, around 1,400 Texans have gone to another state for abortion care, according to Dr. Kari White, lead investigator of the Texas Policy Project at the University of Texas at Austin.
“Given what we’ve been seeing in Texas, I think it’s safe to say we’re already living in a post-Roe world,” said Sarah Lopez, client coordinator for Jane’s Due Process, an Austin-based abortion fund that helps kids under the age of 18 who need access to abortion care. “Not just with all the restrictions, but really the impact that those restrictions have on people, forcing them to flee their state to access abortion care.”
‘Feels like everything is on fire every single day’
With nearly all abortions banned after six weeks of pregnancy, the demand for abortions has not decreased in Texas, according to Alexandria, Lopez and nearly one dozen other abortion rights advocates ABC News spoke to in the state.
“Regardless of circumstance or zip code or income, people are always going to need abortions,” said Lopez, who herself had an abortion in her home state of Texas after graduating college. “Whichever ban is in place, I think it just makes the process more risky, more arduous, you know, it makes it far more confusing, far more stigmatizing.”
She said being an abortion rights advocate in Texas often feels “like everything is on fire every single day.” In Austin, Alexandria said her day is consumed by an endless stream of calls from women in Texas seeking financial or logistical help for an abortion.
“Most of the people that I’m speaking to on the hotline are already parents, just like most people who have abortions,” said Alexandria, who was a mom of two when she got an abortion. “They’re struggling to find child care and the time to take off of work without making it more difficult financially to afford the procedure that they need.”
In the U.S., nearly 60% of all women who obtain abortions are already mothers, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a reproductive rights research organization.
Qiana Lewis-Arnold, a birth justice associate with The Afiya Center, described the center’s workload as having “quadrupled” in the wake of SB8.
“The obstacles are just overwhelming, not just for the folks who are seeking abortions, but for the folks like us who are working with them,” she said. “This has created more obstacles, more stigma surrounding abortion and a lot of unnecessary fear.”
The anecdotal evidence of this is backed by data showing that with SB8 in place, the number of abortions has not dropped dramatically, according to White’s research. Instead, many women have resorted to traveling hundreds of miles out of state — as far as Maryland, Illinois and Washington state — or to ordering abortion pills online, if they are able to do so.
With increasingly limited access, a network of abortion funds — nonprofit organizations that provide funding and support to those seeking an abortion — has stepped in to fill the void.
The funds often cover a portion or all of the cost of the abortion itself — which can be hundreds of dollars in some cases — as well as practical care, including things like translation services, gas, hotel stays and child care.
“Texas is huge and there are abortion funds in basically every region of Texas,” said Lopez. “So there’s just been a lot of really cross-regional support that’s had to happen, and a lot of collaboration, a lot of creativity.”
Across the country, there are 92 abortion funds — as of October 2021 — that are members of the National Network of Abortion Funds, which helps connect organizations nationwide.
In the 72 hours after the Supreme Court draft opinion leaked in May, the network reported receiving more than $1.5 million in donations.
“The collaboration and the interconnectedness of abortion funds, I think that is a future of reproductive justice,” said Lopez. “It’s where we all work together and make sure that people have what they need.”
Who gets abortions with restricted access, and how
If Roe v. Wade is overturned by the Supreme Court, nearly half of the nation’s 50 states are prepared to ban all or nearly all abortions, according to the Guttmacher Institute.
Texas is one of 13 states that put a so-called trigger law in place to immediately ban abortion if the Supreme Court allows it. So if the court overturns Roe in its upcoming ruling, performing an abortion at any time after conception in Texas would be a felony.
With that ban in place, the distance women in Texas would have to travel to access abortion care would increase by 3,017%, according to the Guttmacher Institute. While New Mexico and Kansas would become the closest states that allow abortion, many Texans would likely have to travel even further because of the increased demand and wait times at abortion clinics in those states.
Already under SB8, abortion clinics in states surrounding Texas, including New Mexico, Kansas and Oklahoma — which has since enacted its own abortion ban — have reported being overwhelmed with patients.
In Kansas — where the state capital is nearly 700 miles away from Texas’ capital — residents will vote in August on an amendment to change Kansas’ constitution to remove abortion as a protected right.
Abortion restrictions’ impact on maternal mortality
With increasing restrictions in states and the prospect of Roe being overturned, abortion is likely to be accessible only in certain regions of the country, meaning people seeking abortions will have to travel further for care, at a greater cost and very possibly at a later stage in pregnancy due to both travel and wait times at a limited number of abortion clinics, according to White, of the University of Texas at Austin.
With abortion funds’ limited financial resources to help women as well as the inability of all women to travel, the impact, according to those on the ground in Texas who say they have already seen it happen, is that abortion becomes even more unequally accessible.
“The people who suffer the worst from abortion bans are the people who are always the most impacted,” said Alexandria. “Black and brown folks, indigenous folks, trans and queer communities, immigrants, children, parents, students, all of these people are the first to feel the impact of these restrictions.”
At The Afiya Center, which offers doula services in addition to abortion support, the residual impacts of abortion restrictions they see include high maternal mortality rates, high levels of childhood poverty and poor health rates, especially for Black women.
Texas has one of the worst maternal mortality rates in the country and Black women in the state are “disproportionately” affected, accounting for 11% of live births but 31% of maternal deaths, according to a 2020 report from the state’s Maternal Mortality and Morbidity Review Committee.
“It’s actually safer to have an abortion in Texas than to have a baby,” said D’andra Willis, doula services coordinator for The Afiya Center.
In the U.S., two women were reported to have died following complications from legal-induced abortions in 2018, the latest year for which data is available. That same year, 658 women were reported to have died due to complications from pregnancy or childbirth, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Willis said that for Black women like herself, the right to abortion means the right to make a life-saving decision for themselves.
“It’s just more than ‘my body, my choice,’ when it’s my life. My life is on the line,” said Willis, adding, “To be faced with Roe v. Wade being overturned, it’s just going to increase maternal mortality. It’s going to further perpetuate generational poverty. Access to health care is going to get even worse than it already is.”
‘Our work here becomes even more important’
Around 200 miles away from The Afiya Center, in Pflugerville, a city outside of Austin, Brittany Green, executive director of the Pflugerville Pregnancy Resource Center, stands in the center’s baby boutique, which provides clothes and baby supplies for moms who have decided to carry their pregnancies to term.
Across the country, pregnancy resource centers — nonprofit organizations that aim to support women on the path to parenthood — outnumber abortion clinics three to one, data shows.
In Texas, which has more pregnancy resource centers than any other state, the Pflugerville center is one of around 200 such centers.
“The vast majority of the activity in the pro-life movement is really these hundreds of pro-life pregnancy centers and maternity homes who are designed to help women, and help them long after the baby is born,” said Joe Pojman, executive director of Texas Alliance for Life, an Austin-based organization that opposes abortion, adding that he hopes Texas serves as an “example for the rest of the country.”
“For those women who seek abortion out of state in border states or beyond, it breaks my heart,” said Pojman. “It breaks all our hearts in the pro-life movement because Texas has such vast resources for women with unplanned pregnancies.”
Last year, the Texas Legislature directed $100 million in state funding over two years to Alternative to Abortions, a state-run program that was launched nearly 20 years ago with the purpose of “promoting childbirth” and providing support to pregnant women, according to the state’s health department.
The program, which provides funding to local pregnancy resource centers and subcontractors, served over 126,000 clients in 2021, according to Texas Health and Human Services.
Pflugerville’s pregnancy resource center, based in a small house down a side street, is privately funded, relying primarily on donations from individuals and local churches, according to Green.
The mostly volunteer-run center hums with a sense of urgency as they await the Supreme Court’s ruling.
“Power will come back to Texas and we’ll be able to eliminate abortion here,” Green said of what she believes will happen if Roe is overturned. “But women are still going to feel ashamed. They’re still going to need help and they’re still going to need resources, so our work here becomes even more important.”
Green said the center has experienced an increase of what she calls “abortion-minded” women since SB8 went into effect in Texas.
“The good thing with the bill is it actually slows down their decision-making time,” said Green. “So now that women are having to go outside of Texas to seek an abortion, it actually opens up the doors for us to talk about how desperate are you to terminate this pregnancy. And is it worth going the extra miles, is it worth paying additional money to have an abortion?”
According to Tere Grace, the center’s sonographer, women are coming in earlier and earlier in their pregnancies.
“Before SB8, we were seeing people that were coming in at 12 weeks, 14 weeks, 18 weeks, pretty much when women had the window for legal abortion and still hadn’t processed how they wanted to do it,” said Grace. “Now we’re seeing babies much much younger than that, sometimes 4 or 5, 6 weeks old because they want to beat that ‘deadline’ of the heartbeat.”
She continued, “Finding the heartbeat is really important to us because we want to speak truth, ‘There’s a heartbeat here.'”
Supporters of SB8, including Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, call SB8 the “heartbeat bill.” Medical doctors say using the word heartbeat is “clinically inaccurate.”
According to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG), there cannot be a heartbeat at an early stage of pregnancy because the chambers of the heart are not developed. Instead, the sound is what ACOG describes as the “ultrasound machine translating electronic impulses that signify fetal cardiac activity.”
Like most pregnancy resource centers across the country, Green says the one in Pflugerville does not “ever encourage a woman to seek abortion.”
“Our goal is to help them choose life,” she said of the center, which offers free sonogram services and pregnancy tests as well as education classes expectant women can take to earn points that they can then spend as money in the center’s baby boutique.
Tiffany Turner, a single mom of two from Round Rock, Texas, came to the Pflugerville Pregnancy Resource Center last year when she became pregnant while finishing graduate school to become a physician assistant.
“I didn’t have much support at all,” Turner said while holding her infant daughter, River, adding that she found the support she needed as soon as she walked into the center, which she said she found by searching for help online.
“They started giving me diapers from the week that I came,” said Turner. “And every week I would come and do Bible studies and classes, and they helped me through delivering her, and then three weeks postpartum, they started again.”
Turner said she continues to come to the resource center for clothes for River and supplies like diapers. According to Green, the center helps women through a child’s second birthday.
“We want our parents to leave feeling successful and that they can parent without support after us,” said Green. “If it is a situation where they still need continuing support, we’re actually going to refer them to another pregnancy center that can meet the need up until the child is 5.”
If Roe v. Wade is overturned and abortion becomes even harder to access across the country, abortion rights advocates say they fear there will not be enough support for women and children in the long-term.
Advocates like Edwards, of The Afiya Center, said they see their work post-Roe being even more focused on what they see as the root causes of the need for abortion, addressing issues like poverty, domestic violence and lack of access to health care and contraception.
“If you really want to help people, then find out what the underlying issues are,” said Edwards. “Help people get out of that predicament, and it’ll prevent people from being in this predicament.”
