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Mother of Uvalde victim speaks out for first time

August 3, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(UVALDE, Texas) — Uvalde, Texas, shooting victim Makenna Lee Elrod loved butterflies so much that they were released at her funeral in June.

Several landed on her siblings and her mother, April Elrod, who said it felt like the 10-year-old was sending them a sign.

“One landed on my shoulder, one landed on her sister’s shoe, which is silly because Makenna is three years younger than her sister but they were the same size shoe and they always fought over shoes,” said Elrod, who spoke with ABC News for her first interview since the tragedy on May 24.

“One landed on her daddy’s tie,” she added.

Elrod recently got a tattoo in Makenna’s honor, she said. Flowers grace her forearm, representing each of her children, and a butterfly sits above Makenna’s flower.

She asked Georgia woodworker Sean Peacock to make her two benches shaped like butterflies in Makenna’s honor, but she didn’t expect he’d make them for free, let alone honor all 21 victims with butterfly benches of their own using donations from GoFundMe.

Elrod has called meeting Peacock “a blessing.” He said the donation is a “love story.”

“He and I’ve been talking since and when I’m having a bad day, he just seems to be the one that messages and says you know, we’re praying for you,” Elrod said. “Her story has brought people closer together. And I mean, what more can you ask for?”

A prayer vigil was held Monday in Uvalde Town Square as the benches were unveiled. The benches were laid alongside crosses that had been put up around the square’s fountain to honor each victim, with many adorned with rosaries, teddy bears, photos and flowers.

Families of several victims joined the Elrod family at the vigil, admiring the benches as the sun went down.

Elrod said Makenna was loved by many, making friends everywhere she went. She said people continue to come up to her and tell her stories about Makenna that she hadn’t heard before.

“When she played softball, she would take an extra 30 minutes to say goodbye at the softball fields before we can leave,” Elrod said.

She was also loved by her teachers, one of whom was a close friend to the Elrods. Irma Garcia, who also died in the shooting, was shielding Makenna during the attack. Elrod herself is a teacher in Uvalde, at Dalton Elementary.

“I knew her and knew what an amazing teacher she was. And so I requested for her to be Makenna’s teacher that year, or this year, and Makenna had a wonderful year. And she was growing. And I mean, she really was having a great year and, and Miss Garcia was an amazing teacher. Amazing,” Elrod said. “And I know that she, that when she left this Earth, that she was being held by Miss Garcia, and she was trying to protect her.”

When people remember Makenna, Elrod wants them to remember her daughter’s bright smile and welcoming demeanor, as well as her faith.

They hope her spirit lives on through a butterfly garden near their home, as well as the memorials of her scattered throughout the city.

“I feel like we’re gonna keep Makenna’s memory alive because we’re gonna love big, like Makenna did,” Elrod said.

Boeing workers approve contract after averting strike

August 3, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(ST. LOUIS) — Nearly 2,500 Boeing workers at three St. Louis-area facilities on Wednesday accepted a contract offer from the plane manufacturer after calling off a strike planned for earlier this week.

In recent weeks, a dispute over the three-year contract centered on retirement compensation. Workers last Sunday rejected an offer that fell short of their demands on that issue, said Jody Bennett of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAMAW).

The new contract provides workers with an $8,000 cash bonus, which would be subject to tax withholdings. Alternatively, under the terms of the proposed contract, workers can opt to place the total amount in a 401(k) account, Boeing said.

Under the proposal, the company will automatically put an amount equivalent to 4% of a worker’s pay into the 401(k) each year, the company and Bennett said.

But the new proposal removes the company’s 401(k) match, which featured a dollar-for-dollar company match on 10% of a worker’s pay, the union said. Instead, the company will match 75% on the first 8% of employee contributions.

“Throughout negotiations, the committee worked diligently to educate the membership and bring back an improved offer from the company,” said Tom Boelling, president of IAM District 837, the union local that represents the workers. “We have delivered an equitable contract that will secure the future for the members, their families and future generations.”

The contract includes a $2 per hour increase in the base wage for all employees, which equates to an average 7.2% wage hike, Boeing said. Workers at the three St. Louis-area locations make an average of $29.42 per hour, the union said.

“We’re pleased with the outcome of the vote and we look forward to our future here in the St. Louis area,” Boeing said in a statement.

In 2014, Boeing stopped offering a traditional pension plan for new hires, replacing it with a 401(k) that fails to adequately compensate workers, Bennett said.

The Arlington, Virginia-based company reported $160 million in profit in the second quarter of this year, which marked a 72% decline from the same quarter a year prior.

The company brought in $62.2 billion in revenue in 2021 after a resurgence in sales of its 737 Max, which was grounded in 2019 after two crashes left 346 people dead. The Federal Aviation Agency lifted the grounding order in November 2020.

“Our members at Boeing St. Louis fought hard to ensure they received a contract that compensated them fairly,” Bennett, of IAMAW, said in a statement.

Moderna considering creating an mRNA monkeypox vaccine amid growing demand for shots

August 3, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(CAMBRIDGE, Mass.) — Amid growing concerns over the potential threat of monkeypox, executives from Moderna said Wednesday they have initiated a research program to consider whether the company could create a monkeypox vaccine with mRNA technology.

“We’re obviously very aware of the monkeypox concern and obviously very sensitive to recent announcements,” Moderna President Stephen Hoge said during an investor call.

He went on, “We did initiate a research program. We are tracking that very closely and obviously, given the recent public health announcements and increasing concern about availability of vaccine supply, we are beginning to look at what it would take for us to use our platform and to provide a monkeypox vaccine — both [to] intervene in the current and the current epidemic but also to try and address long-term issues of supply in this public health threat.”

Domestically and globally, officials have been vocal in their concern that there are not enough monkeypox vaccines to address the emerging crisis. With demand increasing, officials from the U.S. Health and Human Services (HHS) have reported that a total of 1.1 million doses of the JYNNEOS vaccine for monkeypox, a two-dose regimen, will be allocated to states and jurisdictions across the country. Approximately 1.5 million Americans are currently considered eligible for vaccination, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) told ABC News last month.

Moderna will continue to track the monkeypox virus “very closely” given the recent increase in cases domestically and globally and discussions remain pre-clinical, Hoge said. No decision on whether the company will move forward with the creation of such a vaccine has been made, he noted.

“Our platform is pretty well established and our ability to rapidly scale has been demonstrated. If we were to go after a monkeypox clinical development program, it would be to very quickly progress toward an approvable set of endpoints in a clinical study,” he explained.

As seen with the rollout for the COVID-19 vaccines in the U.S., any new vaccine would still need to go through the regulatory authorization process, which can take weeks to months, even in special circumstances.

“We need to engage with regulators and other consultations to determine what that path would be,” he added.

Hoge noted that COVID-19 is still a “larger public health threat” than monkeypox at this time and the company remains focused on preparing boosters for the fall.

Of the more than 25,000 monkeypox cases reported globally, over 6,300 cases have been reported in the U.S., according to the CDC.

Cases have been detected in 48 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico.

New government reports on long COVID lay out existing help, what more should be done

August 3, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — The federal government took an initial step forward in its response to long COVID-19 Wednesday, releasing two reports that compile what federally-funded services are available to people already suffering from the condition, and what research efforts are still needed to better understand how to address it.

“These are initial reports. They’re a significant step, but they’re one step,” said Dr. Rachel Levine, the U.S. assistant secretary for health for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, in an interview with ABC News.

“And the work begins tomorrow, as we work on the implementation of the recommendations to the report moving forward,” Levine said.

The reports stemmed from a presidential memorandum issued by President Joe Biden in April, which created an interagency task force on long COVID headed up by HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra and Levine, who will now oversee a new office specifically focused on long COVID at the department.

The HHS Office of Long COVID Research and Practice “will be charged with the implementation” of both plans produced by HHS and updating both regularly — but doing so will hinge on funding for staff and operations in the next annual budget.

To start, it’s not yet clear how common long COVID is. Estimates of how many people experience long-term symptoms after a COVID-19 infection vary between 5% and 30% of people, while a recent large study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that age might be a factor.

One in five adults under 65 has a health condition related to a previous COVID infection, while one in four people over 65 does, the CDC study found. Women, too, might be disproportionately affected.

A lack of data on who these people are — from race and ethnicity to gender — also leaves gaps in how equitable the U.S. response is.

“While racial disparities in Long COVID are relatively unexplored, it is well understood that some racial and ethnic minority communities are disproportionately impacted by COVID-19,” the HHS report published Wednesday said.

Only 65% of over 61 million COVID cases reported by early 2022 included race and ethnicity data, according to the report.

Addressing who has long COVID and whether everyone is equitably getting both the treatment and the government-supported services to help them, like disability benefits, is a large focus of the report.

“We want the parent who lost their job to know that there is income and job assistance available. We want health care providers to know that technical guidelines and resources can help them do their job and that research is on-going to continue to improve their ability to treat and care for their patients. Simply put we want to assist the American public in addressing the longer-terms effects of COVID-19,” HHS spokesperson Tara Broido told ABC News.

There are 200 services for people with long COVID listed in the report, including technical guidelines for health care providers working with long COVID patients.

“We’re going to figure out what the gaps are and where we need additional resources,” Levine said.

And while there are already studies underway across the government, including at the National Institutes of Health, the CDC and the Department of Veterans Affairs, the HHS reports on long COVID call for faster research and implementation.

“The current lag in research being translated into practice is simply not acceptable in the current environment,” the report finds.

“We must aggressively innovate how we do research and accelerate the pace of research to meet the challenge of the moment. … We need to rethink how we disseminate research and translate findings into practical solutions more quickly.”

Levine called the two reports, and specifically the research plan, a “living document” that should serve as “guideposts for government action.”

“This is an initial step in a long term project. So I think it will help people, but then it’s going to inform how we move forward to help people over the long term,” Levine said.

Highland Park shooting suspect pleads not guilty to 117 counts

August 3, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(HIGHLAND PARK, Ill.) — The man accused of carrying out a mass shooting in Highland Park, Illinois, on the Fourth of July pleaded not guilty to all charges on Wednesday.

The suspect, Robert Crimo III, is facing 117 charges for killing seven people and injuring more than 30 others.

Appearing in court Wednesday for his arraignment, Crimo sat handcuffed and masked in a Lake County Jail jumpsuit next to his three attorneys.

The 21-year-old is charged with 21 counts of first-degree murder (three counts for each victim) as well as 48 counts of attempted murder and 48 counts of aggravated battery with a firearm (for each person hit by a bullet, bullet fragment or shrapnel).

Speaking after the arraignment, Lake County State’s Attorney Eric Reinhart told reporters if the suspect is convicted of murdering any two people, he will face life in prison without the possibility of parole. Under Illinois law, any sentence on the charge of murder is served in full.

Reinhart said the suspect’s defense did not demand a trial at the Wednesday hearing.

Refusing to comment on evidence, charging decisions or the status of the investigation, Reinhart praised law enforcement, the Lake County State’s Attorney’s Office and victim specialists who provided counseling for those impacted by the shooting.

Attorneys agreed to return on Nov. 1 for a case management conference.

Five of the victims killed in the shooting died at the scene, one died at a hospital the same day and the seventh victim succumbed to his injuries at a hospital on July 5, according to police.

The suspect allegedly fired more than 70 shots from a perch on top of a building overlooking the Chicago suburb’s July 4 parade route, according to police.

The suspect planned the shooting for several weeks, according to the Lake County Sheriff’s Office.

Crimo was dressed in women’s clothing, apparently to blend in with the crowds as he made his escape, according to police. A semi-automatic rifle was found at the scene after it fell out of the suspect’s bag while leaving the area, according to police.

Investigators said they found a second rifle, purchased legally, in the car the suspect was driving when he was arrested several hours later. The suspect also legally purchased three other weapons, including two pistols, which investigators seized from his father’s home.

Two troubling encounters with police did not surface when background checks were run on Crimo, a part of his application for a gun license.

Police had checked in on the suspect in April 2019 after he attempted suicide, but his parents assured police he was getting help from mental health professionals. The second encounter came when police were called to his home in September 2019 after a family member claimed Crimo was threatening to “kill everyone,” according to police records.

At the time, the Highland Park Police Department determined that the shooter posed a “clear and present danger,” according to police records.

This was just months before he passed four background checks as part of his application for a firearm owner identification card, at the age of 19.

Because he was under 21 at the time, his father sponsored his application and state police said there was an “insufficient basis to establish a clear and present danger and deny the FOID application.”

State police said they had reviewed the suspect’s criminal history before approving his application and only found a January 2016 ordinance violation for being a minor in possession of tobacco.

Manchin, Collins cite Jan. 6 as they push reforms to 1887 Electoral Count Act

August 3, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — Senators Susan Collins and Joe Manchin joined forces Wednesday to propose changes to a 19th century law that former President Donald Trump and his allies exploited to try to overturn his 2020 election loss.

Manchin, D-W.Va., and Collins, R-Maine, testified before the Senate Rules and Administration Committee about reforming the Electoral Count Act — a vaguely worded 1887 law that governs the counting of each state’s electoral votes for president.

The once obscure law became a focal point of Trump’s scheme to remain in power as he pressured Republican lawmakers and then-Vice President Mike Pence to reject votes for Joe Biden from certain states during the joint session of Congress on Jan. 6, 2021.

Nearly 150 Republicans maintained objections to electors from Arizona and Pennsylvania, even after the violence that broke out at the U.S. Capitol.

“We were all there on Jan. 6,” Manchin said in his testimony. “That happened, that was for real. It was not a visit from friends back home. We have a duty and responsibility to make sure it never happens again.”

Collins and Manchin introduced legislation in late July aimed at modernizing the law after months of negotiation with a group of 16 senators. On Wednesday, they urged colleagues to pass what they said are sensible and desperately needed reforms during this Congress.

“In four out of the past six presidential elections, the Electoral Count Act’s process for counting electoral votes has been abused with frivolous objections being raised by members of both parties,” Collins told the committee. “But it took the violent breach of the Capitol on Jan. 6 to really shine a spotlight on how urgent the need for reform was.”

The first bill — the Electoral Count Reform and Presidential Transition Improvement Act — would raise the threshold for lawmakers to raise objections to state electors. Under current law, one House member and one senator are needed to raise an objection. In their proposal, one-fifth of the House and the Senate would be needed to object.

That measure would also clarify the role of the vice president as purely ministerial, after debate over whether Pence had the authority to unilaterally change, reject or halt the counting of electoral votes.

“It unambiguously clarifies that the vice president … is prohibited from interfering with electoral votes,” Manchin said.

The second bill would double the penalty under federal law for individuals who threaten or intimidate election officials, poll watchers, voters or candidates from one year to two years.

Earlier this summer, former election officials testified before the Jan. 6 committee on the threats they faced in the wake of the 2020 election.

Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss, a mother-daughter duo from Georgia, described how being the target of a Twitter post from Trump — in which he falsely alleged they were smuggling suitcases of ballots — upended their lives and careers.

Both women said they’re afraid to use their names, and Freeman was told by the FBI she had to leave her home for two months because of threats.

“I haven’t been anywhere at all,” she said. I’ve gained about 60 pounds. I just don’t do nothing anymore. I don’t want to go anywhere. All because of lies — for me doing my job, same thing I’ve been doing forever.”

The Senate Rules and Administration Committee on Wednesday also heard from a panel of experts on elections and governance studies on the proposed changes to the Electoral Count Act.

Bob Bauer, a scholar in residence at New York University School of Law, said legal scholars have long called for reform and that the bills offered by Manchin and Collins are a “vast improvement over existing law.”

Extreme flooding, drought is making risk management difficult and ineffective, researchers say

August 3, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — Risk management strategies for floods and drought may not reduce the effects of unprecedented extreme weather events as they become more frequent due to climate change, researchers are warning.

In the past, even with effective risk management efforts that reduced global vulnerability to floods and drought, the regions affected still suffered dire consequences, researchers at the German Research Center for Geosciences stated in a study published Wednesday in Nature.

Those events are already increasing in severity in many parts of the world. If the planet warms by 2 degrees Celsius since the Industrial Revolution started, the worst-case scenario presented in the Paris Agreement and many climate change studies, flooding events may double globally and even triple in some places, according to the study.

The planet has already warmed a little more than 1 degree Celsius, according to scientists.

The researchers analyzed a dataset of 45 pairs of flood or drought events that occurred in the same area at different time points — about 16 years apart on average — and found that, in general, risk management reduced the impact of floods and drought.

However, when the events were at magnitudes that have not been previously experienced, the effectiveness of the risk management strategies may not as successful, regardless of the approaches taken and whether they had worked in the past, the researchers found.

This may be due to aging infrastructure that was designed to manage a hazard much less menacing than the extreme weather events that are occurring today, such as levees or water reservoirs being exceeded, according to the study.

In addition, flaws to human risk perception, especially for rare extreme events, might hinder efforts to anticipate them and lessen their effects, the researchers said.

In the past two weeks, the U.S. has experienced heat waves in regions that had rarely reached triple-digit temperatures, such as the Pacific Northwest, and back-to-back devastating flooding events in regions that are not built or equipped to handle such an influx of precipitation that modern day storm systems are carrying, such as the record flooding that occurred in Missouri and the catastrophic flooding that claimed dozens of lives in eastern Kentucky.

The researchers did note successful responses from two events in which the second event was more hazardous but the effects were less than those of the first event — flooding in Barcelona in 1995 and 2018 and Danube catchment floods in Austria and Germany in 2002 and 2013.

They hypothesized that the lessened damage from the second event was due to improved risk management investment and integrated management approaches, which then led to improved early warning and emergency responses.

The findings highlight the difficulty of managing such extreme events as warming global temperatures increase the frequency and intensity of not just floods and drought but storm systems and wildfires as well, the researchers said.

The successful responses can serve as an example for risk management efforts for future unprecedented weather events, the authors concluded.

Leading House Democrat backtracks after saying about Biden in 2024: ‘I don’t believe he’s running’

August 3, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — A leading House Democrat on Wednesday backtracked on comments she made Tuesday that she doubts President Joe Biden will renew his bid for the presidency in 2024 — a highly unusual break from the party’s standard-bearer.

The White House has said repeatedly Biden intends to run for reelection.

When asked during a debate if he should run again, New York Rep. Carolyn Maloney, who is currently seeking reelection for the Empire State’s 12th Congressional District, told debate moderators from NY1: “I don’t believe he’s running.”

Maloney is in a hotly contested primary, in part due to redistricting that pits her against another Capitol Hill veteran, Rep. Jerry Nadler. The pair face off on Aug. 23.

Nadler told debate moderators on Tuesday that it was “too early to say” if Biden would run again in 2024, adding that such speculation “doesn’t serve the purpose of the Democratic Party to deal with that until after the midterms.”

Maloney’s answer was quickly seized on by the Republican National Committee and circulated on social media.

Maloney is no political novice. The chair of the House Oversight Committee has served in Congress for nearly 30 years, and her prognosis of Biden’s prospects are at odds with some others in the party: The Democratic National Committee and the White House — as well as congressional leaders like Sen. Chuck Schumer — have aligned on another potential Biden-Kamala Harris ticket. The president previously told ABC News’ David Muir that he would run as long as his health remained good.

Maloney tweaked her remarks somewhat Wednesday morning, tweeting that she would “absolutely support President Biden, if he decides to run for re-election.”

“Biden’s leadership securing historic investments for healthcare, climate & economic justice prove once again why he is the strong and effective leader we need right now,” she said.

Still, Maloney is not alone in her reservations: Rep. Dean Phillips, D-Minn., recently told local media that he doesn’t believe Biden should seek a second term. “I think the country would be well-served by a new generation of compelling, well-prepared, dynamic Democrats to step up,” Phillips said.

Later, in a statement to The Minnesota Star Tribune, he added: “Under no condition can we afford another four years of Donald Trump, and while Joe Biden was clearly the right candidate at the right time two years ago, it’s my hope that both major parties put forward new candidates of principle, civility, and integrity in 2024.”

Minnesota House colleague Angie Craig then cited Phillips this week when she said that there needs to be a “new generation of leadership.”

At 79, Biden is the oldest-ever serving president — breaking a record set by his predecessor, Donald Trump, now 76.

Biden last month defended his popularity among Democrats, telling ABC News that a New York Times/Siena College poll showing a majority of his party preferring another 2024 nominee also found that 92% of Democrats said they’d vote for him in another race with Trump.

And among all voters, the poll found, Biden would best Trump 44% to 41%.

Biden told ABC News in December that the prospect of such a rematch was appealing.

“You’re trying to tempt me now,” Biden told Muir then, laughing. “Why would I not run against Donald Trump for the nominee?” he added. “That’ll increase the prospect of running.”

T.J. Maxx parent company to pay $13 million for selling recalled products

August 3, 2022 by WDNY Radio

T.J. Maxx parent company to pay million for selling recalled products

(NEW YORK) — The parent company of department store chain T.J. Maxx has agreed to pay a $13 million fine for the sale of roughly 1,200 recalled products over a five-year period, including products determined to have put infants at risk of suffocation and death, a federal agency said on Tuesday.

TJX Companies Inc., which also oversees retail chains Marshalls and HomeGoods, sold the recalled products at brick-and-mortar stores belonging to the three subsidiary brands from 2014 to 2019, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, or CPSC, said.

Sales of the recalled products also took place online, the agency said.

In addition to paying the fine, TJX will maintain a set of internal controls to ensure that the company complies with law that prohibits the sale of recalled products, the CPSC said. TJX has agreed to file annual reports on its compliance program for five years, the agency added.

Most of the recalled products sold by TJX were recalled due to the risk of infant suffocation and death, including the Kids II Rocking Sleepers, Fisher-Price Rock ‘n Play Sleepers and Fisher-Price Inclined Sleeper Accessory for Ultra-Lite Day & Night Play Yards, the CPSC said.

“At TJX, product safety is very important to us and we prohibit the sale of recalled items in our stores,” TJX said in a statement. “We deeply regret that in some instances between 2014 and 2019, recalled products were not properly removed from our sales floors despite the recall processes that we had in place.”

“We have made a significant investment in people, processes, and technology to strengthen our processes, and have cooperated fully with the Consumer Product Safety Commission,” the company added.

In 2019, CPSC and TJX jointly announced that TJX had sold 19 separate recalled products. After the announcement, TJX reported to staff that it subsequently discovered previous sales of three additional recalled products, CPSC said.

TJX reported $11.4 billion in revenue over a three-month period that ended on April 30, which amounted to an increase of 13% over the same three-month period a year prior. The company reported $587 million in profit over the three-month period that ended in April.

Kansas voters preserve abortion access in high-turnout primary

August 3, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(OVERLAND PARK, Kan.) — Abortion rights opponents in Kansas vowed to keep fighting after voters here decisively rejected removing the right to abortion from the state constitution in the first state-level test since the Supreme Court overturned federal abortion protections.

“This setback is not going to stop us. Our resolve has never been stronger than in this very moment,” Peter Northcott, executive director of Kansans for Life said following Tuesday’s defeat.

Coming just weeks after the Roe v. Wade decision, organizers on both sides said voters were more energized and engaged, leading to record turnout despite the issue being decided in a primary in a midterm year when numbers are historically lower.

As of Tuesday morning, more than 298,618 Kansans had cast ballots compared to the 2018 primaries during which only 89,449 had voted early, according to the Kansas secretary of state’s office.

The “Value them Both” amendment centered on a 2019 Kansas Supreme Court ruling that protected abortion under the state constitution.

If the amendment had passed, it would have given the state’s GOP-controlled legislature the power to pass new abortion restrictions.

With 99% of the expected vote counted as of 8:31 a.m. Wednesday, “No” led with 59% to “Yes” at 41%

Kansas currently permits abortions up to 22 weeks of pregnancy, although regulations include requirements for counseling, parental consent for minors, and a waiting period.

“I think that Kansas can make a statement to other states and show them that, even though we are normally Republican, we are not letting this be a political choice,” Jackie Clapper told ABC News Congressional Correspondent Rachel Scott while canvassing with Kansans for Constitutional Freedom ahead of Tuesday’s vote.

“We are making this to be a health care choice a right to be able to preserve your choice to make choice decisions for your own body,” she said.

Abortion rights opponents say the issue is far from settled.

“If the last 50 years haven’t shown anything we’ve been fighting we’re not going to stop fighting until every woman is supported, every every father is supported, every child is supported. There’s nobody that’s unwanted and nobody wants to ever give up,” Mary Kissel, told ABC News at the Value them Both coalition watch party.

The ballot question read, in part, “Shall the following be adopted? Regulation of abortion. Because Kansans value both women and children, the constitution of the state of Kansas does not require government funding of abortion and does not create or secure a right to abortion. To the extent permitted by the constitution of the United States, the people, through their elected state representatives and state senators, may pass laws regarding abortion, including, but not limited to, laws that account for circumstances of pregnancy resulting from rape or incest, or circumstances of necessity to save the life of the mother.”

It continued, “A vote for the Value Them Both Amendment would affirm there is no Kansas constitutional right to abortion or to require the government funding of abortion, and would reserve to the people of Kansas, through their elected state legislators, the right to pass laws to regulate abortion. A vote against the Value Them Both Amendment would make no changes to the constitution of the state of Kansas, and could restrict the people, through their elected state legislators, from regulating abortion by leaving in place the recently recognized right to abortion.”

Following Tuesday’s defeat, the coalition claimed “misinformation” and “confusion that misled Kansans about the amendment.”

“As our state becomes an abortion destination, it will be even more important for Kansans to support our pregnancy resource centers, post-abortive ministries, and other organizations that provide supportive care to women facing unexpected pregnancies. We will be back,” the coalition said in a statement to ABC News.

Voters waiting in line also expressed confusion about the amendment, many saying that while they eventually understood what they were voting on, they had to make an extra effort to figure it out.

Celia Maris, a Democrat who voted “no” on the proposed amendment, said she had to read the wording multiple times, saying, “I think they need to explain it because not everybody can understand the terminology.”

At the same time, she said the confusion made her want to turn out. “I made a point to come and vote today even more.”

Christine Matthews, a “yes” voter, said it wasn’t clear what the amendment would do and wouldn’t do.

“I do think that some people think that if you vote no, then you will totally go back to having a national legal abortion situation. I also think that people think if you vote “yes,” that that is just going to completely wipe out abortion completely. I know neither of those was true.”

Tuesday’s vote was seen as a bellwether in a post-Roe world and will set a precedent for other states considering similar abortion measures.

President Joe Biden used Kansas’ ballot amendment defeat to call on Congress to “listen to the will of the American people and restore the protections of Row as federal law.”

“This vote makes clear what we know: the majority of Americans agree that women should have access to abortion and show have the right to make their own health care decisions,” he said in a statement.

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