Erin Clark/The Boston Globe via Getty Images, FILE
(BOSTON) — Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey on Monday announced her state has begun stockpiling the abortion drug mifepristone ahead of a court-ordered injunction that could pull the drug from the market as early as Friday.
It’s a dramatic escalation in the fight over abortion rights that’s pitted red states versus blue, and emboldened Democrats to look for novel ways to defy the potential nationwide injunction slated to go into effect at the end of the week.
Under the governor’s plan, Healy said the University of Massachusetts Amherst has already purchased 15,000 doses — more than a year’s worth of mifepristone for the state. Another $1 million from state coffers would be offered to health care providers in the state to buy the drug before a nationwide injunction takes hold.
The governor also said she will sign an executive order noting that existing state law protect pharmacists and providers from criminal and civil legal liability if they continue to stock and dispense the drug.
“Here in Massachusetts, we are not going to let one extremist judge in Texas turn back the clock on this proven medication and restrict access to care in our state,” Healey said in a statement released Monday. “The action we are taking today protects access to mifepristone in Massachusetts and protects patients, providers and pharmacists from liability.”
Later, she said, “It harms patients, undermines medical expertise and takes away freedom. It’s an attempt to punish, to shame, to marginalize women. It’s unnecessary. It’s terrible.”
The announcement follows Washington Democratic Gov. Jay Inslee’s decision last week to purchase a three-year supply of the drug for that state.
The bulk buys follow a ruling last Friday from a Trump-appointed federal judge in Texas that would suspend the FDA’s approval of mifepristone, the only drug specifically approved to end early pregnancies up to 10 weeks. The judge gave the Biden administration until this coming Friday to appeal with ruling, which it gave notice it would do late this past Friday.
The Biden administration is expected to ask the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals on Monday to put a hold on the judge’s nationwide injunction while the case is being considered by the upper court. It’s also expected that the case will eventually go to the Supreme Court.
Erin Clark/The Boston Globe via Getty Images, FILE
(BOSTON) — Democratic governors from at least three states — Massachusetts, California and Washington — have announced they’ve begun stockpiling abortion medications, ahead of a court-ordered injunction that could pull the drug from the market as early as Friday.
It’s a dramatic escalation in the fight over abortion rights that’s pitted red states versus blue, and emboldened Democrats to look for novel ways to defy the potential nationwide injunction slated to go into effect at the end of the week.
The court ruling “harms patients, undermines medical expertise, and takes away freedom. It’s an attempt to punish to shame to marginalize women. It’s unnecessary. It’s terrible,” said Gov. Maura Healy of Massachusetts.
Healy announced on Monday that under her direction the University of Massachusetts Amherst has already purchased 15,000 doses — more than a year’s worth of mifepristone for the state. Another $1 million from state coffers would be offered to health care providers in the state to buy the drug before a nationwide injunction takes hold.
The governor also said she would sign an executive order noting that existing state law protect pharmacists and providers from criminal and civil legal liability if they continue to stock and dispense the drug.
“Here in Massachusetts, we are not going to let one extremist judge in Texas turn back the clock on this proven medication and restrict access to care in our state,” Healey said in a statement. “The action we are taking today protects access to mifepristone in Massachusetts and protects patients, providers and pharmacists from liability.”
Also on Monday, California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced that his state will purchase an emergency stockpile of up to 2 million pills of misoprostol – a drug not approved for abortion but commonly used around the world as an alternative to terminate early pregnancies.
Misoprostol is considered slightly less effective when taken without mifepristone. It also comes with more painful side effects because it needs to be taken in larger doses to end a pregnancy.
When asked why the California governor didn’t buy mifepristone instead, spokesperson Brandon Richards said the state would continue to “fight this battle on multiple fronts.”
“California is purchasing and securing misoprostol to ensure people across California and the country know medication abortion will remain accessible and affordable regardless of what happens in the courts,” he said.
The announcements from Massachusetts and California follow Washington Democratic Gov. Jay Inslee’s decision last week to purchase a three-year supply of the drug for that state.
The bulk buys comes after a Trump-appointed federal judge in Texas ruled to suspend he FDA’s approval of mifepristone, the only drug specifically approved to end early pregnancies up to 10 weeks. The judge gave the Biden administration until this coming Friday to appeal with ruling.
Since then, the Biden administration has appealed the case and asked the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals on Monday to put a hold on the judge’s nationwide injunction while the case is being considered by the upper court. It’s expected that the case will eventually go to the U.S. Supreme Court.
If the 5th Circuit does not agree to freeze the judge’s ruling as the Biden administration has asked, production and manufacturing of the abortion drug mifepristone would stop as early as Friday. Abortion clinics were expected to continue to offer the drug to patients until their supply runs out.
ABC News’ Teresa Mettela contributed to this report.
(AUSTIN, Texas) — Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said he is “working as swiftly as Texas law allows” to pardon Daniel Perry, who was convicted Friday of murder in the fatal shooting of a protester at a Black Lives Matter protest in 2020.
Perry, an active-duty U.S. Army sergeant based in Texas at Fort Hood, was working as a driver for a ride-sharing company when he drove onto a street crowded with protesters on July 25, 2020, in Austin, Texas.
Garrett Foster, 28, was pushing his fiancee in a wheelchair during the protest when police say Perry’s car was surrounded by protesters.
Foster, who was carrying an AK-47-type rifle, approached Perry’s car when he was shot several times by Perry, according to police. Open carry is legal in Texas.
Perry’s attorneys argued at trial he had no choice but to shoot Foster for his own protection, according to ABC affiliate KVUE.
Prosecutors argued that Perry could have driven away before firing.
Witnesses testified at the trial that Foster never raised his rifle at Perry, however, Perry told police that Foster did raise the rifle, according to local outlet Austin American-Statesman. Perry did not testify in trial.
Both of the men are white.
Abbott slammed both the jury’s decision to convict Perry and Travis County District Attorney José Garza for pursuing the case.
“Texas has one of the strongest ‘Stand Your Ground’ laws of self-defense that cannot be nullified by a jury or a progressive District Attorney,” Abbott said in an online statement.
He said the Texas Constitution limits his pardon authority to the cases recommended by the Board of Pardons and Paroles. He said he requested the Board of Pardons and Paroles to take up Perry’s case and determine if he should be granted a pardon.
“Additionally, I have already prioritized reining in rogue district attorneys and the Texas Legislature is working on laws to achieve that goal,” he said.
District Attorney Garza fired back, arguing, “in a state that believes in upholding the importance of the rule of law, the Governor’s statement that he will intervene in the legal proceedings surrounding the death of Garrett Foster is deeply troubling,” he said in a statement sent to ABC News.
Garza continued, “In our legal system, a jury … gets to decide whether a defendant is guilty or innocent – not the Governor.”
Foster’s father Stephen Foster told KVUE News that his family is “happy with the verdict. We’re very sorry for his family as well. There’s no winners in this. Just glad it’s over.”
Perry’s attorney Clint Broden told ABC News that their focus is on the upcoming sentencing hearing, where they plan to zero-in on Perry’s “character and his service to our country as a member of our military for the past 12 years.”
(NEW YORK) — Two lettuce and salad kit producers have recalled products due to potential contamination of listeria monocytogenes.
Revolution Farms expanded upon an earlier voluntary recall first announced on April 5 to include all products sold under the Revolution Farms brand.
“The recalled product has the potential to be contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes,” the company said in a recall announcement posted by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
The Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development first received “a positive result for Listeria monocytogenes in a random sample test of a package of Revolution Farms Green Sweet Crisp 5 oz. Retail with Best By date of April 2, 2023,” the company stated.
Once the recalled product “was epidemiologically linked with a multi-state outbreak of Listeriosis” the recall was voluntarily expanded on April 6, 2023, Revolution Farms said, adding that an investigation into the matter is “ongoing.”
The affected products were sold to retailers and food service distributors in Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky and Wisconsin. For a full list of retailers and detailed packaging information as well as product codes, click here .
“Revolution Farms, LLC is cooperating with the U. S. Food and Drug Administration and Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development on this ongoing investigation,” the company said in a statement with the recall.
All recalled products were distributed under the Revolution Farms brand name, and all Revolution Farms products and date codes are included in the recall.
Fresh Express Incorporated also announced a voluntarily recall on Friday of a “limited quantity of three varieties of already-expired branded and private label salad kit products” which it said was done “out of an abundance of caution due to a possible health risk from Listeria monocytogenes.”
According to a company recall announcement posted on the FDA website, the recalled products were distributed through retailers in Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia, and are no longer available for sale.
No illnesses have been reported in connection with the Fresh Express recall, as of time of publication.
The affected items include Fresh Express Caesar Chopped Kit, Fresh Express Chopped Kit Chipotle Cheddar and Publix Makoto Honey Ginger Salad Kit. Click here for full product codes and use by date information.
Consumers who may have the recalled products in their refrigerators have been urged by both companies in both recalls to discard and not consume them.
Refund and return information can be directed to the company response teams found in the recall announcements.
Symptoms, side effects of listeria monocytogenes
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention , listeria can cause severe illness “when the bacteria spread beyond the gut to other parts of the body” after a person consumes contaminated food. Those at higher risk include pregnant people, those aged 65 or older, or anyone who has a weakened immune system, the CDC says.
“If you are pregnant, it can cause pregnancy loss, premature birth, or a life-threatening infection in your newborn,” the CDC states on its website. “Other people can be infected with Listeria, but they rarely become seriously ill.”
According to the CDC, anyone infected with listeria may experience “mild food poisoning symptoms” such as diarrhea or fever, and many recover without antibiotic treatment.
(BLANCHARD, Okla.) — Most high schoolers graduate in May or June but for one Oklahoma teen, commencement came a little early this school year.
Caleb Woodrum, a senior at Blanchard High School in Blanchard, Oklahoma, graduated on March 28 in an early ceremony held at the hospital bedside of his mother Stacie Scyrkels.
Blanchard High School Principal Greg Jackson was there to pronounce the 18-year-old a graduate, surrounded by his family members and the staff at Integris Health Southwest Medical Center in Oklahoma City.
“There wasn’t a dry eye in that room,” Jackson recalled to “Good Morning America.”
Woodrum told “GMA” his mom had an atrial septal defect and for the last decade had lived with congestive heart failure and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. For the past six years, he had been taking care of her and bringing her to her doctor’s appointments too.
He knew his mom wasn’t doing well but said he didn’t realize how much worse it had gotten until he called his mom’s hospital on March 27.
“She didn’t really tell anyone. She just wanted us to be strong,” Woodrum said.
When Woodrum and his family talked to his mom’s care team, one of her nurses mentioned they hoped to plan an impromptu graduation ceremony for him and his mom.
The unexpected event all came together in less than 24 hours, according to Christina Hopkins, a registered nurse at Integris who helped care for Scyrkels. They teamed up to bring the ceremony to life because the nursing team said Scyrkels, who was in intensive care, would likely not be able to live until May.
“Kati Crouch — she is the respiratory therapist that had been taking care of her for a while on her rotations and Stacie had mentioned to her that she just wanted to be able to make it to May to be able to see her youngest son graduate from high school,” Hopkins explained to “GMA.”
“I said, ‘OK,’ and I absolutely ran with it immediately,” the nurse continued. “I put out a Facebook post and said ‘Hey friends and family if you have any graduation decorations or supplies that you would like to donate, urgent request, I need them as soon as possible.'”
In addition to decorations and food, the Integris staff contacted Blanchard High School and Jackson said he was more than happy to accommodate the unusual request.
“We said, ‘Sure.’ We didn’t know whether she wanted us next week, week after and I think that’s when it hit home is when the nurse said, ‘Well, no, we need to do this tomorrow,'” Jackson recounted. “So we did [the] same thing anyone else would do. We grabbed a cap and gown and a diploma and we got it set up and went to Integris Southwest on Tuesday at noon and granted her wish.”
Woodrum said he is grateful he and his late mom and their loved ones were able to share such a special moment together.
“It was very surreal. It was something that I couldn’t have imagined … but I’m glad that I did get to make that memory with her,” he said.
Afterward, the mother and son duo, who held hands during the ceremony, shared an emotional hug, something Hopkins remembered vividly.
“The hug that she gave her son took a lot out of her. But she did it and she persevered because that’s what she wanted. You can see the love pouring out of her in that moment,” Hopkins said.
Woodrum said that when he went in for the hug, his mother “told me she loves me and never to forget it. And I told her I will not.”
Both Hopkins and Jackson said the early commencement went off without a hitch.
“I’m so proud of Caleb for what he accomplished and what we were able to give to him and to her especially and I’m so proud to be a part of that team,” Hopkins said.
Added Jackson, “We’re just glad we got it done for him, something he’ll remember forever, that moment with his mother.”
Scyrkels died the day after her son’s early graduation on March 29, which also happened to be her 57th birthday.
(LAKELAND, Fla.) — A Florida woman who spent her life savings to help her daughter beat breast cancer is now a millionaire.
Geraldine Gimblet of Lakeland bought a winning Florida Lottery ticket one day after her daughter completed her final treatment for breast cancer.
Gimblet said she purchased the last available ticket the store had of her favorite Scratch-Off game.
“At first, the gas station clerk thought there were no tickets left, but I asked him to double check because I like the crossword games the best,” Gimblet said, according to the Florida Lottery. “He found the last one!”
The $10 ticket was a $2 million dollar winner for Gimblet, according to the Florida Lottery.
When she claimed the prize at the lottery’s headquarters in Tallahassee last week, Gimblet did so alongside her daughter and granddaughter.
Gimblet’s daughter, who was not named, shared with Florida Lottery officials how her mom supported her financially during her cancer battle.
“The day before my mom bought this ticket, I rang the bell and walked out of the hospital after completing my last treatment for breast cancer,” she said. “My mom had taken out her life savings to take care of me when I was sick. I’m just so happy for her!”
Gimblet did not reply to ABC News’ request for comment.
According to the Florida Lottery, Gimblet opted for a one-time, lump-sum payment, meaning she took home just over $1.6 million.
Billy Schuerman/Daily Press/Newport News/Tribune News Service via Getty Images
(NEWSPORT NEWS, Va.) — The mother of a 6-year-old boy who allegedly shot a teacher at his Newport News, Virginia, elementary school is now facing charges, prosecutors announced Monday,
A grand jury returned two indictments charging Deja Taylor with felony child neglect and misdemeanor recklessly leaving a loaded firearm as to endanger a child, according to prosecutors.
Taylor’s 6-year-old son allegedly took a handgun from his home on Jan. 6, put it in his backpack and brought it to Richneck Elementary School where he allegedly shot and wounded 25-year-old teacher Abigail Zwerner in a first grade classroom. Zwerner suffered critical injuries but is expected to make a full recovery.
Zwerner has sued the school’s former superintendent, principal and assistant principal for $40 million, alleging negligence.
Zwerner’s lawyer, Diane Toscano, said in a statement about the new charges, “There were failures in accountability at multiple levels that led to Abby being shot and almost killed. Today’s announcement addresses but one of those failures. It has been three months of investigation and still so many unanswered questions remain.”
“Our lawsuit makes clear that we believe the school division violated state law, and we are pursuing this in civil court,” Toscano continued. “We will not allow school leaders to escape accountability for their role in this tragedy.”
Police said the 9 mm Taurus pistol was legally purchased by the boy’s mother.
In the wake of the shooting, the 6-year-old’s family said their son “suffers from an acute disability and was under a care plan at the school that included his mother or father attending school with him and accompanying him to class every day.”
“The week of the shooting was the first week when we were not in class with him,” the family said.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(LONDON and ROME) — About 1,200 migrants on two different boats were rescued in the Mediterranean on Monday, the Italian Coast Guard said.
One of those boats, a migrant vessel adrift in the Mediterranean with about 400 people on board was in “huge danger” amid high waves on Monday, Sea-Watch International, a nongovernmental rescue operation said.
Italian Coast Guard ships had been dispatched in a rescue operation, the organization said. Another vessel with about 800 people on board also was safely evacuated about 120 miles off the southern coast of Sicily on Monday, according to ANSA, an Italian news agency.
The adrift vessel had departed from Tobruk, Libya, with migrants heading to Europe, according to Alarm Phone, a migrant-aid group.
Around 2,000 people had been rescued by the Italian Coast Guard over the weekend since Friday, the coast guard said. With the combined rescues Monday, the total number of rescues is up to more than 3,000 people since Friday.
“The people on board are in panic and ask for immediate rescue,” Alarm Phone said on Twitter.
The vessel had been taking on water on Sunday as it drifted between Greece and Malta in high seas, both organizations said. Sea-Watch said it came across the vessel “in distress” on Sunday after the captain had apparently abandoned ship.
“Two merchant ships that are ordered not to rescue, instead one was asked by Malta to only supply the boat with fuel,” Sea-Watch said.
Alarm Phone said several people had jumped into the water when they saw nearby merchant ships. The ship that had supplied fuel didn’t rescue any of the passengers, Sea-Watch said.
“A woman reported the seriousness of the conditions on board. The captain left & there is nobody who can steer the boat,” Alarm Phone said. “Several people require medical attention, incl. a child, a pregnant woman & a person with a physical disability.”
ABC News’ Ellie Kaufman contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — The Justice Department on Monday filed an emergency stay motion with the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals seeking to block the order from a federal judge in Texas striking down the FDA’s approval of the abortion medication drug mifepristone.
“Rather than preserving the status quo, as preliminary relief is meant to do, the district court upended decades of reliance by blocking FDA’s approval of mifepristone and depriving patients of access to this safe and effective treatment, based on the court’s own misguided assessment of the drug’s safety,” the DOJ said.
“The district court took this extraordinary step despite the fact that plaintiffs did not seek relief for many years after mifepristone’s original approval, waited nearly a year after the most recent FDA actions they seek to challenge, and then asked the court to defer any relief until after a final resolution of the case,” the motion reads.
U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, a Trump appointee, ruled late Friday to suspend FDA approval of mifepristone — the first time a federal judge has blocked a drug approved for humans despite the FDA’s position. Kacsmaryk put the order on hold for seven days to give the Justice Department time to appeal.
The DOJ said the district court’s unprecedented order should be stayed pending appeal. it argued the plaintiffs lack standing to challenge the FDA’s approval of a drug they neither take nor prescribe; their challenge to FDA actions dating back to 2000 is manifestly untimely; and they have provided no basis for second-guessing FDA’s scientific judgment.
“Those defects foreclose plaintiffs’ claims, and the court flouted fundamental principles of Article III and administrative law in holding otherwise. Indeed, no precedent, from any court, endorses plaintiffs’ standing, timeliness, or merits theories,” the DOJ said.
“The court’s sweeping nationwide relief was especially unwarranted given the balance of harms: If allowed to take effect, the court’s order would thwart FDA’s scientific judgment and severely harm women, particularly those for whom mifepristone is a medical or practical necessity. This harm would be felt throughout the country, given that mifepristone has lawful uses in every State. The order would undermine healthcare systems and the reliance interests of businesses and medical providers. In contrast, plaintiffs present no evidence that they will be injured at all, much less irreparably harmed, by maintaining the status quo they left unchallenged for years.”
“The district court granted a seven-day administrative stay. This Court should extend the administrative stay pending resolution of stay proceedings in this Court and, if necessary, the Supreme Court. The Court should then stay the district court’s order pending appeal,” the DOJ told the appeals court.”The government requests that this Court enter an administrative stay or grant a stay pending appeal by noon on April 13, to enable the government to seek relief in the Supreme Court if necessary.
Future access to the abortion pill mifepristone — on the market since 2000 and used in more than half of abortions in the U.S. — also hangs in limbo after contradictory rulings late Friday by Kacsmaryk and a second federal judge in Washington State.
Within hours of the Kacsmaryk’s order Friday, U.S. District Judge Thomas Rice, an Obama appointee, ruled that mifepristone should continue to be available in 17 states and the District of Columbia. Those states had sued in anticipation of a ruling limiting access.
When there’s such a conflict between lower courts — especially appeals courts — the Supreme Court typically steps in.
“Because they’re at a similar level, the heads will butt until they get to a higher court,” said ABC News legal contributor Brian Buckmire, when asked about the conflicting cases on “GMA3” Monday. “It could be a Supreme Court argument deciding this all.”
“A lot of people are predicting already that [Justice Brett] Kavanaugh may be the person to look to, because he was the one that said, yes, we may stop short of Roe v. Wade, but we will allow the states to decide themselves,” Buckmire said, referring to Kavanaugh’s concurring opinion in the Dobbs case that overruled a constitutional right to abortion.
The 5th Circuit, seen as one of the most conservative, is expected to weigh in before the ruling takes effect on Friday.
“In other words, Kacsmaryk’s ruling will go into effect at midnight (CDT) on Saturday, April 15 unless either the Fifth Circuit or the Supreme Court freezes it in the interim,” wrote Steve Vladeck, a constitutional law professor at the University of Texas.
“If the Fifth Circuit grants either form of relief before the end of the day Friday, then this probably stays out of the Supreme Court for now; it seems more than a little unlikely that the plaintiffs in the Amarillo case would try to ask the Supreme Court to vacate such a stay,” he said.
Until then, experts have speculated on what the high court might decide.
“It’s easy to imagine that there are four votes to, at the very least, put the ruling on pause for however long it takes for the case to make its way through the lower courts (including Chief Justice Roberts and the three dissenters in Dobbs). The question to which we might have an answer by the end of the week, an answer that will have implications far beyond the specific (but massively important) future of mifepristone, is whether there are five,” Vladeck wrote.
ABC News’ Anne Flaherty contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — Former President Donald Trump’s attorneys are appealing an order for former Vice President Mike Pence to testify before the special counsel investigating Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election, sources familiar with the matter confirm to ABC News.
Trump has previously sought to assert executive privilege in an attempt to block Pence’s testimony, but late last month the chief judge for the D.C. district court, James Boasberg, rejected his team’s arguments and ordered Pence to testify and provide records to special counsel Jack Smith.
Boasberg, however, did narrowly uphold parts of a separate legal challenge brought by Pence himself, who argued he should be shielded from having to testify on certain aspects related to his role as president of the Senate overseeing the certification of the 2020 election on Jan. 6, 2021.
Pence was subpoenaed by the special counsel in February, following months of negotiations between federal prosecutors and Pence’s legal team.
Pence said last week he would not seek further appeal, though said he was unsure whether Trump’s team would continue their own fight to prevent his testimony and bring their executive privilege claims before the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals.
The appeal was formally docketed Monday before the D.C. Circuit, court records show, though other details surrounding it will remain under seal due to its connection to grand jury matters.
In previous instances where Trump’s team has sought intervention from the D.C. Circuit, judges there have acted swiftly to order legal briefs from his team and the special counsel before rejecting his legal challenges.
A spokesperson for the special counsel’s office declined to comment to ABC News.
