(NEW YORK) — The number of ways in which climate change is predicted to affect human life and vitality continues to increase.
Scientists now believe that global warming will significantly increase the number of viral transmissions across species in the coming decades, therefore posing further risk to other animals and humans of infectious diseases, such as COVID-19, according to a study published in Nature on Thursday.
As the global temperatures continue to rise, many animal species will likely migrate to new environments, taking their parasites and pathogens with them and facilitating viral sharing between species that previously had no interactions, according to the study. That increase could then assist in “zoonotic spillover,” or the transmission of pathogens from wild animals to humans.
The researchers suggest at least 15,000 new cross-species viral transmissions are forecast to happen by 2070, driven by climate change of 2-degrees Celsius, which is the worst-case scenario highlighted under the Paris Agreement.
While novel encounters between mammal species are expected to occur everywhere in the world, they are especially expected to take place in tropical regions home to most of the infectious diseases capable of the zoonotic spillover transmission, such as regions of tropical Africa and southeast Asia that have a high population density of humans as well.
These novel virus sharing events are predicted to be driven predominantly by bats, which are likely to harbor viruses with a high chance of being transmissible to humans.
Climate-driven shifts in hotspots for species dispersal and viral evolution may already be happening, given that warming is already well underway, the authors wrote.
The COVID-19 virus likely originated from animal to human transmission, the World Health Organization determined. The virus likely transmitted from a bat to another animal and subsequently to humans, according to a joint report by China and the WHO released in March 2021.
“I think we will continue to see risks from female viruses like Ebola, from corona viruses, from flu in particular,” Colin Carlson, a research professor at Georgetown University’s Center for Global Health and Science Study and author of the study, said during a press conference Thursday.
The findings suggest that climate change has the potential to become a dominant driving force in cross-species viral transmission, which could increase the risk of transmission of infectious diseases to humans, the authors said, highlighting the need to combine viral surveillance with assessments of changes to species range as a result of climate change.
“This is happening,” Gregory Albery, co-author of the study and disease ecologist at Georgetown University, said during the news conference. “It is not preventable even in the best case climate change scenarios, and we need to put measures in place to build health infrastructure to protect animal and human populations.”
(WASHINGTON) — The Speaker’s Dining Room in the Capitol is usually filled with photographs of Nancy Pelosi’s home state of California.
But for the next six weeks, on display instead will be shocking images of the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine caused by the Russian invasion.
Pelosi unveiled the photo exhibit Thursday, joined by other lawmakers and the Ukraine’s ambassador to the United States, Oksana Markarova.
“It is a manifestation — an emotional time to the people of Ukraine, with a praise for their heroism that is just almost unimaginable, but so is the brutality they are suffering,” Pelosi said, describing the scenes.
The photographs showed streams of desperate civilians fleeing Ukraine amid charred and collapsed buildings, paramedics trying to save the wounded, and mass graves.
“I wish I could tell you about our talented children well on the way to their amazing successes,” the Ukrainian ambassador said. “Instead, this photographs that you see here today tell the stories of children who will never grow up. The children who were subjected to torture.”
Pelosi thanked Markatova for allowing the photos to be displayed, saying they will allow House members and their guests to witness close-up the brutality of the Russian invasion.
“It is very emotional for us to see, but that motivates us to do so much more,” Pelosi said.
The exhibit opening came as the House approved a measure 417-10 Thursday making it easier for the United States to “lend” military aid and equipment to Ukraine. All 10 votes against were cast by Republicans. It now heads to the president’s desk.
“It’s outside the circle of civilized human behavior what the Russians are doing,” Pelosi said, getting emotional as she made her way around the room taking in the photos. “You would think unimaginable, but then here it is.”
(WASHINGTON) — U.S. and global health officials are sounding the alarm about an increasing number of mysterious cases of severe hepatitis occurring among children.
Earlier this month, researchers in the United States and Europe announced they were investigating small clusters of the cases emerging across the globe. Soon after, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released an alert to doctors and providers to be on the lookout for the unusual cases.
Globally, around 170 cases have been identified, according to World Health Organization officials, with many of the children under the age of 10.
“What is particularly unusual is that the majority of these children were previously healthy,” Dr. Philippa Easterbrook, a medical expert with the WHO’s Global HIV Hepatitis and STI Programme, said during a press conference on Thursday.
The causal agent of these cases of acute hepatitis, or liver inflammation, in children, remains unknown. Experts say hepatitis is often caused by an infection, but not always.
In an effort to identify what may be driving the outbreaks, the WHO has initiated a full investigation, encouraging countries to report concerning cases, with their scientists hoping to find any potential connection.
Domestically, Alabama, Delaware, Illinois, New York, North Carolina and Wisconsin confirmed to ABC News that a total of more than 20 cases of severe hepatitis have been identified in the U.S.
At least four children in the U.S. have required a liver transplant.
On Wednesday, officials from the Wisconsin Department of Health Services issued a health alert over concerns over the discovery of a recent cluster of cases in children of acute hepatitis. Of the four cases identified, two children developed severe outcomes, including one child who required a liver transplant, and one child who died.
Likewise, at the University of Alabama Hospital at Birmingham, physicians have been investigating a concerning uptick in the number of children infected with severe acute hepatitis since the fall.
“What caught our attention, from the beginning, was that all of these cases were testing positive for adenovirus,” Dr. Helena Gutierrez, medical director of the UAB and Children’s of Alabama Pediatric Liver Transplant Program, told ABC News on Thursday, adding that officials were also alarmed by the severity of the cases.
Nine patients with pediatric hepatitis in Alabama have been shown to be positive for the adenovirus-41 strain through blood work, two of whom have required liver transplants, according to state officials. However, an official correlation has yet to be confirmed.
The majority of these children, mostly under the age of 10, and many of them under the age of 5, came to the hospital with similar symptoms — diarrhea and vomiting, which subsequently led to dehydration, according to Gutierrez. These initial symptoms were followed by jaundice, with the skin turning yellow, and then the sclera, or white, of the eyes subsequently turning yellow.
Experts say these outbreaks are very “unusual”, and there is likely a confluence of factors behind the rise in severe cases.
“These unexplained cases of hepatitis have always existed, but at a very low level, where the standard tests have been done, and there’s no clear cause. And these happen at a very low level in most countries,” Easterbrook said.
WHO officials reported that one of the “leading threads of investigation” is the potential connection to the adenovirus. However, a direct link has yet to be made.
“At the end, most likely, this is all going to be multifactorial, it could be a virus that’s driving it, plus an exaggerated response from these patients to try to combat these viruses,” Gutierrez said. “Knowing that there are different centers that are seeing more of these cases, it is definitely rare, and it’s not the norm.”
With a hepatitis outbreak, physicians often look for infectious and non-infectious causes to explain the uptick in disease, according to WHO officials. Thus far, none of the common hepatitis viruses (A, B, C, E) can be traced to this outbreak, and there have been no other known potential exposures to drugs, environmental agents, or toxins.
The emergence of these clusters of severe hepatitis among children comes after many children have been forced to stay inside and distance themselves from social activities, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. One hypothesis, that the outbreak could potentially be linked to a lack of exposure to other germs, is one that health experts are investigating, Gutierrez said.
The COVID-19 pandemic reduced the circulation of other viruses, and now that life is getting back to normal, officials have seen an increase in adenovirus.
It is still unclear what role COVID-19 is playing in this outbreak, according to Dr. Richard Peabody, who leads WHO Europe’s high-threat pathogens team. It could “potentially” be playing a role, but any link “really needs further investigation to understand whether [COVID-19] might be a factor.”
There is also no evidence, at this time, that vaccination against COVID-19 is related to the outbreaks, as the majority of the children were unvaccinated.
When asked what parents could do to protect their kids, given the lack of information pertaining to the causal agent for the hepatitis infection, Gutierrez said that parents should not to be alarmed, given that kids get sick routinely, and if they developed symptoms such as diarrhea and vomiting, it is critical to keep them hydrated.
However, she urged parents to seek medical attention if the children developed symptoms that are not normal.
If symptoms “continue to be an issue, and hydration is a problem, just like any other type of illness, just go to your pediatrician, but especially if you see that your kid starts to have skin that’s turning yellow, or the white of their eyes turning yellow, or urine that’s very dark in color,” Gutierrez said.
Such symptoms should be brought up to the attention of the pediatrician, so that the child can be assessed, and to determine if care should be escalated.
(MIAMI) — Three Florida correctional officers were arrested on murder charges for allegedly beating an inmate to death, while a fourth remains at large, authorities said Thursday.
Christopher Rolon, 29, Kirk Walton, 34, and Ronald Connor, 24, were arrested Thursday following a monthslong investigation of the fatal incident at the Dade Correctional Institution in Miami-Dade County, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement said.
They were arrested on multiple charges, including second-degree murder, conspiracy, aggravated battery of an elderly adult and cruel treatment of a detainee, jail records show. Attorney information was not immediately available.
Additional information on the fourth correctional officer being sought by law enforcement was not provided.
The incident occurred on the morning of Feb. 14, before the inmate was scheduled to be transferred to a correctional facility in Lake County, according to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, which led the investigation into the death along with the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office.
After the inmate reportedly threw urine on an officer, he was placed in handcuffs and removed from his cell in the mental health unit, at which point the officers “began to beat him,” the Florida Department of Law Enforcement said in a statement.
“The inmate was beaten so badly he had to be carried to the transport van,” the agency said.
The inmate, whose name was not released by the agency, was placed in a compartment of the van alone. During a stop in Ocala, an over 300-mile drive from Dade Correctional Institution, he was found dead, authorities said.
The inmate’s death was caused by a punctured lung leading to internal bleeding, according to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. He also had injuries to his face and torso “consistent with a beating,” the agency said.
The incident initially led the Florida Department of Corrections to place 10 officers on administrative leave. One officer also resigned over it, the department said.
“What happened in this case is completely unacceptable and is not a representation of our system or of Dade Correctional Institution as a whole,” Florida Department of Corrections Secretary Ricky Dixon said in a statement Thursday. “The staff involved in this case failed, and as an agency we will not stand for this.”
The Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office, which is prosecuting the case, is holding a press briefing Friday afternoon with the Florida Department of Corrections and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to share further details on the criminal charges.
“Staff misconduct, abuse or criminal behavior have no place in Florida’s correctional system,” Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle said in a statement. “Inmates should not be subject to forms of ‘back alley’ justice which are actions in violation of Florida law.”
(WASHINGTON) — The Justice Department filed a civil lawsuit on Thursday against former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort.
It is seeking $3 million in fines and penalties over Manafort’s alleged failure to file reports disclosing more than 20 offshore bank accounts he controlled in Cyprus, St. Vincent and the Grenadines and the U.K. between 2006 and 2014.
The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Florida, notes that the Treasury Department previously sent him a notice of its assessment of the penalties in July of 2020.
He was pardoned by former President Donald Trump five months later in December of 2020 for his tax fraud, conspiracy and obstruction convictions stemming from former special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.
The DOJ’s lawsuit indicates that prosecutors don’t believe Trump’s pardon of Manafort encompasses his failure to file Foreign Bank Account reports in 2013 and 2014.
ABC News has reached out to an attorney for Manafort for comment.
(COPENHAGEN, Denmark) — Denmark is the first country to announce it is temporarily stopping its COVID-19 vaccination program due to high rates of immunization and falling infection numbers.
In a statement, the country’s National Board of Health said it would not be issuing invitations to citizens to get vaccinated after May 15.
Health officials said the country, which was the first in the European Union to lift mitigation measures in February, “is in a good place” following the omicron wave.
The Danish Health Authority on Thursday announced additional measures easing COVID restrictions in the country, including the easing of mask rules in healthcare, elderly care or in parts of the social sector. Patients admitted to hospitals will only be tested if they are exhibiting symptoms of the virus.
Data from the Danish Health Authority shows that, as of April 20, 89% of those in Denmark aged 12 and older are fully vaccinated and 76% have received a booster. About 37% of those aged 5 to 11 are also fully vaccinated.
“Spring has come and we have good control of the epidemic, which seems to be subsiding,” Bolette Søborg, director of the department of preparedness and infectious diseases at the DHA, said in a statement. “Admission rates are stable, and we also expect them to fall soon. Therefore, we are rounding up the mass vaccination program against COVID-19.”
Danish health authorities said people can still get vaccinated over the spring and summer if they want to, with Søborg highlighting the increased risk for serious COVID complications in unvaccinated people over age 40 or who are pregnant.
Additionally, a second booster is being offered to those who are immunocompromised or at high risk of severe disease.
COVID-19 cases and deaths have been trending downward since the end of the omicron wave. Figures from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control show Denmark recorded 1,484 new infections Tuesday, a 65% decrease from the 4,322 recorded one month ago. New deaths also fell 73% over the same period from 41 to 11.
However, Danish health authorities said the vaccination program will resume in the fall, when COVID-19 cases are expected to increase.
“The Danish Health and Medicines Authority’s assessment is that there will probably be a need to vaccinate against COVID-19 again in the autumn,” the release read. “This is because the virus that causes COVID-19 is an unstable virus that can mutate, just as we saw with the omicron variant.”
Denmark’s decision to halt its vaccination campaign comes as countries around the world have had vastly different responses to the pandemic in recent weeks.
Most European countries and the United States have lifted COVID-19 restrictions while China has implemented lockdown measures in its two largest cities — Beijing and Shanghai — following outbreaks of the virus.
(CHARLESTON, S.C.) — The fight to pass the Clementa C. Pinckney Hate Crimes Act in South Carolina is now intensifying, as several Republican state senators hold out against it. The state is one of only two in the U.S. that does not have hate crime legislation signed into law.
Pinckney, a state senator and pastor, was one of nine Black parishioners murdered by Dylann Roof in a shooting at the Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina, on June 17, 2015. Roof was sentenced to death in 2017 after being convicted on federal hate crime charges.
The proposed bill aims to enhance the sentencing and penalties under state law against perpetrators convicted of crimes proven to be fueled by hatred. The only other state without such a law in the books is Wyoming.
The bill has stalled in the state senate for months following objections from eight Republicans, including state Sens. Brian Adams and Larry Grooms, who represents the district where the shooting occurred.
The South Carolina Republican Party and the offices of Adams and Grooms did not immediately respond to requests for comment from ABC News.
Black lawmakers gathered in front of Republican Gov. Henry McMaster’s office inside the South Carolina State House on Wednesday to urge Republicans to allow the bill to be taken up for a debate on the Senate floor.
McMaster’s office did not respond to a request for comment from ABC News.
They played a two-minute video statement from Polly Shepard, a survivor of the massacre, who called out the Republican lawmakers by name.
“Eight members of the South Carolina Senate are giving a safe haven to hate. Everytime you look at Sen. Pinckney’s photograph, you should be reminded that hate killed him,” Sheppard said.
She pleaded with lawmakers: “Why are you holding up this bill? What is wrong with protecting us from hate crimes?”
Democratic state Sen. Mia McLeod slammed Republicans, telling reporters that “there is no appetite on the Republican side for conversations or remarks.”
State Rep. JA Moore, whose sister was among the nine shooting victims, told ABC News that he spoke with Adams after the press conference over his lack of support.
“No piece of legislation, no speech, no demonstration, no removal of any flag or monument is going to remove the type of hate that was in Dylann Roof’s heart when he shot and killed my sister and eight other parishioners,” Moore told ABC News.
He continued, “I’m a different person because of the hate that Dylann had in his heart for Black folks. But what this legislation will do is hold people accountable when they commit hateful actions.”
(SPRINGFIELD, Ill.) — A Black woman was finally named valedictorian at her Illinois high school nearly four decades after her graduation.
Tracey Meares, a law professor at Yale University, was a star student at Springfield High School in Springfield, Illinois. But when she graduated in 1984, she was not awarded the title of valedictorian despite having the highest academic ranking in her class, she said. Her story is now the subject of a new documentary, “No Title for Tracey.”
Meares would have been the first Black female valedictorian in the school’s history, but she was not awarded the title. Instead, the school did away with the valedictorian and salutatorian titles that year and Meares was recognized with a group as “top students.” The school went back to official titles in 1992.
“As a 17-year-old, achieving something like being valedictorian is probably the biggest thing…It was incredibly disappointing,” Meares told “Good Morning America.”
Meares said the snub was “very confusing” at first but she later processed the great lengths the school went to to deny her the title.
“I didn’t talk about it ever…Many of my best friends that I have known since I was an adult have asked me why I never told and I didn’t want to talk about it. It was terrible. It was really hard,” she reflected.
Meares went on to study engineering at the University of Illinois and then attended the University of Chicago Law School.
This year, her sister, Dr. Nicole Florence, a first-time filmmaker, turned Meares’ story into a documentary to spotlight the impact of structural racism.
On April 16, after a screening of the documentary in her hometown, Springfield Public Schools District 186 Superintendent Jennifer Gill presented Meares with the valedictorian medal — a surprise to Meares.
“I felt some pride and happiness that my parents who are sitting in the front row could see this happening because they were denied that 30 years ago,” Meares said. “I felt sadness that my grandparents weren’t there.”
Gill said she was “happy” to meet Meares and right this wrong.
“When we know better, we do better. By meeting Tracey and hearing about her lived experience, we know that honoring her with this title means so much more,” Gill told “GMA.” “We want every student to have a feeling of belonging in all aspects of school and a sense of becoming as they leave our schools with a plan for college and career. It is our responsibility to ensure that our system supports students in reaching their full potential. We have seen that high school experiences can have a profound, lifelong impact.”
“It was an honor to have Tracey here and a privilege to learn from such an accomplished alumna,” she added.
The recognition 38 years later is a gesture that Meares says she appreciates.
“Institutionally, there are people who are making an effort to to acknowledge that people are thinking wrong. That was harmful. And it wasn’t harmful, just to me as an individual. It was harmful to the community,” she said. “The thing to take away is for people to understand the ways in which discrimination can operate at a disproportionate rate at a structural level and that its downstream effects are enduring.”
Dinendra Haria/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images
(WASHINGTON) — The head of the Food and Drug Administration on Thursday said the agency would move along to review Moderna’s data for its kid vaccine regardless of when Pfizer submits its data on kids under five, a move that will be welcome news to some parents who were upset that waiting to authorize the vaccines together would delay the timeline.
The FDA was considering reviewing the Moderna data for kids under six, which was submitted for an emergency use authorization on Thursday, alongside Pfizer’s data, which is expected to be submitted in the next few weeks, so that the vaccines could be compared side-by-side.
But on Thursday, FDA Commissioner Robert Califf told reporters the FDA would not “hold up” the Moderna application to wait for Pfizer.
“Most of the experts that I’ve talked with would say it would be ideal if they could be considered together. But if they don’t come in at the same time, then there’s not going to be a hold up on the Moderna application, just to make it come in at the same time,” Califf told reporters Thursday after a hearing on Capitol Hill, in comments that were later confirmed by an FDA spokesperson to ABC News.
A senior administration official also confirmed to ABC News the FDA would act “as expeditiously as possible” to authorize the Moderna vaccine, so long as it meets its standards.
The official said there would be no delay and the application would be judged “on its merits.”
Moderna, which is a two-shot vaccine, is different from Pfizer’s vaccine, which is a three-shot vaccine. Pfizer hasn’t finished gathering its data yet, but some expect it to be more effective because booster shots, or third shots, have shown to boost immune response in adults.
In the meantime, Moderna’s vaccine data is ready for review, though the company will continue to submit more data for its applications over the week or so.
Moderna’s trial found that the shots generated a strong immune response with no significant risks. The vaccine generated an antibody response roughly equivalent to the antibody response seen in adults, the company said.
At the same time, experts have questioned the low efficacy numbers against infection. During the omicron surge, two doses of the vaccine were roughly 51% effective against COVID-19 infection, including asymptomatic and mild infections, for children 6 months to 2 years old, and 37% effective among kids 2 years to 6 years old.
But Moderna’s Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Paul Burton, defended the vaccine’s efficacy against infection, arguing that omicron led to more breakthrough infections, but that the shot produced an antibody response that was even stronger in the young kids than it was in the 18-24-year-olds.
“I think moms and dads and caregivers, doctors and nurses should be reassured by this result,” Burton told ABC News.
“The antibody levels that we saw here were high, and we can translate that to what we see in adults where we get really good protection against severe disease and hospitalization,” he said.
Moderna is also studying third shots across all age groups, including for a variant-specific vaccine that could more effectively target some of the newer strains of the virus.
It’s not clear if the FDA’s decision to move ahead separately on Moderna will significantly affect the timeline for kids under five getting vaccinated.
While Moderna hopes its vaccine will be authorized within a month, which is the usual timeline for vaccine authorization during the pandemic, the company still has to submit more data to the FDA in the coming weeks to complete its submission.
The FDA has signaled that the Moderna submission will take some time to sift through because it has to also review the company’s data on its vaccines for kids up to age 17, which haven’t been authorized yet.
Burton said that the FDA should have the bulk of what it needs to do the review, though.
The FDA is expected to put out more information tomorrow on the timing of its meeting of FDA independent advisors, who will publicly review and discuss the data to kick off the process.
Pfizer’s CEO Anthony Bourla has said that he expected the company to submit data to the FDA in the “coming weeks,” and that it could be authorized in June.
(OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla.) — The Oklahoma legislature gave final approval Thursday to a so-called “heartbeat bill” that seeks to ban most abortions in the state.
It is the latest bill in the U.S. modeled after the strict Texas law that prohibits abortions after six weeks, before most women know they’re pregnant.
Formally called S.B. 1503, but known as the “Oklahoma Heartbeat Act,” the bill bans abortions after cardiac activity can be detected in an embryo or fetus. There are exceptions for when the mother’s life is at risk, but not for rape or incest.
This is not the first abortion ban that Oklahoma has passed in 2022. Earlier this month, lawmakers passed a bill that would make performing an abortion a felony, punishable by up to several years in prison.
S.B. 1503 also allows any private citizen to sue someone who performs an abortion, intends to perform an abortion or helps a woman gets an abortion after a fetal heartbeat can be detected. These citizens could be awarded at least $10,000 for every abortion performed.
However, a civil lawsuit cannot be brought against a woman who receives an abortion. Additionally, someone who impregnated a woman through rape or incest would not be allowed to sue.
The bill is now heading to the desk of Gov. Kevin Stitt, who is expected to sign it. Because of the bill’s emergency clause, it will go into effect once signed by the governor.
“We want Oklahoma to be the most pro-life state in the country,” Stitt said when he signed the previous abortion bill. “We want to outlaw abortion in the state of Oklahoma.”
The governor’s office told ABC News in a statement it “does not comment on pending legislation.”
“The Texas law has already saved the lives of many unborn children,” Republican state. Sen. Julie Daniels, who sponsored S.B. 1503, said in a statement last month. “We can achieve the same result in Oklahoma with SB 1503.”
Planned Parenthood and the Center for Reproductive Rights said they plan to ask the Oklahoma State Court to block the bill before it goes into effect and ends most abortion care in the state.
“Unless these abortion bans are stopped, Oklahomans will be robbed of the freedom to control their own bodies and futures,” Alexis McGill Johnson, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, said in a statement. “Unless these bans are blocked, patients will be turned away, people seeking abortion will be unable to access essential care in their own communities, and their loved ones could be stopped from supporting them due to fear of being sued.”
Since the law in Texas went into effect in September 2021, thousands of women have flocked to Oklahoma to receive the procedure.
A recent study from the Texas Policy Evaluation Project at the University of Texas Austin found that of the 1,500 women that traveled out of state every month to receive abortion since September, 45% visited Oklahoma.
Emily Wales, interim president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Great Plains, said the organization has served hundreds of women who have traveled from Texas to Oklahoma to seek abortion care.
“Now, rather than serving as a haven for patients unable to get care at home, Oklahoma politicians have made outcasts of their own people,” Wales said in a statement. “With today’s filings, we lift up the patients who will otherwise be unable to get care and ask the court to do its most essential function: honor the constitution and the individuals who need its protections.”
Under the bill making performing abortion a felony, any medical provider who performs an abortion would face a fine of $100,000 and up to 10 years in prison. The only exceptions for performing an abortion would be if the mother’s life is in danger.
Several Republican-led states have been passing abortion legislation ahead of a Supreme Court decision in June that will decide the future of Roe v. Wade. The court will review a 15-week ban in Mississippi and decide whether or not it is constitutional. If the ban is declared constitutional, it could lead to Roe v. Wade being overturned or severely gutted.
