Politics

(WASHINGTON) — For a second straight day on Thursday, Russian fighter jets harassed American military drones flying over eastern Syria by dropping parachute-borne flares in their flight path, the Pentagon said.

Once again, the U.S. military labeled the provocative act as “unsafe and unprofessional” and called on Russia to cease its risky behavior.

As with Wednesday’s incident, the Pentagon released a declassified video of the new encounter captured by a camera aboard an MQ-9 Reaper drone involved in the incident.

The video shows a Russian Su-35 fighter jets positioning itself in front of an MQ-9 Reaper before dropping parachute-borne flares into its flight path, officials said.

As in Wednesday’s incident, the American drone had to take evasive maneuvers to avoid the drones, officials said.

“Russian aircraft dropped flares in front of the drones and flew dangerously close, endangering the safety of all aircraft involved,” Lt. Gen. Alex Grynkewich, the top U.S. Air Force commander in the Middle East, said in a statement about Thursday’s incident.

“These events represent another example of unprofessional and unsafe actions by Russian air forces operating in Syria, which threaten the safety of both Coalition and Russian forces,” said Grynkewich.

“We urge Russian forces in Syria to cease this reckless behavior and adhere to the standards of behavior expected of a professional air force so we can resume our focus on the enduring defeat of ISIS,” he added.

On Wednesday, a declassified video released by the Pentagon of that day’s encounter showed Russian aircraft doing the same thing to three Reaper drones but from a front-facing point of view.

That video also showed a Russian jet engaging its afterburner by the drone a move that affected the drone’s flight path.

France’s military also said Thursday that two Rafale fighter jets flying a counter-ISIS flight over eastern Syria had to take evasive maneuvers following “unprofessional” maneuvers by Russian Su-35 fighter jets.

“We call on the Russian forces to cease this type of reckless behavior and to behave like professional airmen,” Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder, the Pentagon’s top spokesman, told reporters on Wednesday.

The U.S. has roughly 900 American troops in eastern Syria assisting in the fight against ISIS, Russia has a military presence in northwestern Syria as part of a mission to support Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

For years Russian and U.S. forces have regularly used a deconfliction hotline to ensure safety in the skies for their respective aircraft as they carry out their separate missions.

A Russian military spokesman claimed that U.S drones have violated existing U.S-Russian air deconfliction protocols in an area of northern Syria where Russia and Syrian planes operate.

Asked to comment on that claim, Ryder responded “Did you see the video?”

“We have rules in place, well established processes and procedures and have very successfully de-conflicted with the Russians over many years when it comes to safe operations in that region” said Ryder. “So to suggest that somehow this is our fault is ridiculous.”

Officials note that safety concerns about unsafe and unprofessional interactions between aircraft in war zones are legitimate and point to an incident in March where a Russian fighter collided with a Reaper drone flying in international airspace above the Black Sea.

The drone ended up crashing into the Black Sea after the Russian jet came too close and collided with it as it harassed the drone by spraying jet fuel at it, according to the U.S.

A similar incident unfolding back in March above the Black Sea when a Russian fighter jet sprayed a U.S. drone with fuel and then collided with its rear propeller.

The U.S. ultimately was forced to bring that damaged aircraft down.

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(WASHINGTON) — The House Freedom Caucus, a hard line conservative group, voted last month to oust Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, multiple sources confirmed to ABC News.

The caucus held a vote to remove Greene as a member just before Congress went on recess at the end of June, sources said.

When asked about the vote, Greene did not directly address her status with the House Freedom Caucus but said in a lengthy statement to ABC News that she serves her constituents — “no group in Washington.”

The news was first reported by Politico.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

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(NEW YORK) — Former President Donald Trump’s joint fundraising team raked in more than $35 million between March and June of this year, a campaign spokesperson told ABC News.

The second quarter haul is nearly double Team Trump’s first quarter total of $18.8 million from earlier this year, a sign that the former president’s fundraising operation is ramping up amid his mounting legal challenges, including the indictment in the Manhattan district attorney’s case and the federal indictment in Florida related to his handling of classified documents. Trump denied wrongdoing in both cases, and he has entered a plea of not guilty to all 34 felony counts of falsifying business records brought in the Manhattan case.

Trump has used both his indictments as a major fundraising boost, headlining a fundraiser at his Bedminster golf club immediately after his first court appearance for the federal case in Miami last month. His team also fired off numerous fundraising emails urging supporters to donate to him.

The Bedminster fundraiser brought him more than $2 million in donations, and in less than a week, the Trump campaign raised $7 million from the federal indictment. Similarly, Trump’s team raised $7 million within three days of the news of his Manhattan indictment dropping.

The average donation to his campaign was $34, the spokesperson told ABC News, adding “It’s evident that grassroots Republicans overwhelming stand with President Trump.”

The second-quarter fundraising figures were first reported by Politico.

Donations to Trump’s joint fundraising operation are split between his presidential campaign and his leadership PAC, Save America PAC, with 90% of each donation going to the campaign and 10% going to the PAC. The joint fundraising committee can receive up to $11,600 in donation per person under the federal campaign finance limit. As a leadership PAC, Save America’s funds cannot be used to support Trump in an election but can be used to pay his and his allies’ legal bills.

As first reported by the New York Times and confirmed by ABC News, the joint fundraising committee in recent months changed its allocation ratio to direct a larger portion of each donation to the PAC as Trump’s legal battles intensified, whereas previously, 99% of each donation for the joint fundraising committee was going to the campaign committee and 1% to the PAC.

Fundraising has long been one of Trump’s biggest weapons against various legal challenges he’s faced, with his presidential campaign and the Republican National Committee paying millions of dollars in legal fees to law firms representing Trump and his allies in legal battles spanning from special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into the 2016 election to two impeachment proceedings.

Most recently, Save America has become one of the main vehicles for paying Trump’s legal bills, including more than a million dollars to a firm representing Trump in a New York attorney general investigation into his family business, as well as hundreds of thousands of dollars paid to law firms representing Trump’s allies subpoenaed by the House committee that investigated the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection.

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(WASHINGTON) — As President Joe Biden moves forward with a second attempt at student loan debt forgiveness, following a 6-3 defeat at the Supreme Court, his administration has also been touting the benefits of the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program as another option for some borrowers — and teachers are sharing how they are among those benefiting.

The PSLF program was first congressionally authorized in 2007, during the Bush administration, to cancel student debt for government employees like educators, firefighters and police officers as well as not-for-profit employees and others providing public services who make at least 10 years of payments on their loans.

However, the original PSLF program was “poorly implemented” and many borrowers weren’t successfully able to receive forgiveness, according to U.S. Education Undersecretary James Kvaal.

Between 2017 and 2021, 1.8% of those eligible received forgiveness through PSLF, Kvaal told ABC News earlier this year. “In many cases, that’s because of the fine print in the program,” he said.

In October 2021, for one year, the Biden administration issued what it called a limited waiver temporarily changing the rules of PSLF. Kvaal likened the temporary changes to a “reset” of a flawed system.

Since then, more than 615,000 borrowers have been approved for $42 billion in relief. (Officials don’t track how many people from each profession are approved through PSLF.)

Those canceled loans can mean a lot for people working in education, according to advocates and teachers.

“That’s a miracle,” Jamie Walker-Sallis, a teacher leader in Iowa who used PSLF in 2021, told ABC News, adding “almost $100,000 — you know what kind of relief that is? That’s like having a monster on your back. Not a monkey, a monster.”

Educators have been grappling with staffing shortages across the country. There have also been increased challenges since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. And financial stress only makes it harder for them to stay in the classroom, advocates say.

“Too many educators leave the profession because they can’t start families on a teacher’s pay,” National Education Association President Becky Pringle told ABC News last summer. “This [student debt] impacts our educators directly. That’s why we are fighting alongside our students to cancel all debt. And we won’t stop until that’s done.”

Black women like Walker-Sallis hold more student debt than any other demographic, according to the nonprofit advocacy organization The Education Trust. Walker-Sallis said she hopes to obtain her doctorate soon but she doesn’t want another financial barrier.

“Now that I have no college debt, I’m struggling to go back,” she said. “You want to continue to grow, you want to continue to develop, but not with that hurdle. You don’t want to create another problem for yourself as you try to climb.”

Gregory Bargeman has been a librarian and assistant principal at Jackson-Reed High School in Washington, D.C., for more than 20 years. He was worried that he’d live with $230,000-plus in student loan debt for the rest of his life.

After receiving a notice in the mail this year that said his loans had been forgiven through PSLF, he told ABC News he couldn’t believe his eyes.

“It’s like winning the lottery,” he said. Having that debt canceled means he can pass on his new home to his daughter and ensure his family’s financial security.

“When I leave this world, I want to be able to give my daughter something,” he said. “I know that whatever I’m investing in or whatever I’m doing — when I leave this life — it will be for my daughter.”

For other educators, the mere possibility of PSLF offers relief.

“Before this PSLF program, and temporary PSLF change, I thought I would be burdened with it [student loan debt] but now I am not stressed,” said Calvin Coolidge’s Michelle Calhoon, who is seeking to have $329,000 in loans forgiven.

Calhoon is a single mom of a teenage daughter who goes to private school in Baltimore. The D.C. educator doesn’t know how she will qualify for a home loan and pay tuition once her student debt payments restart.

But she’s holding out hope, having worked in public service for multiple school systems.

“The idea of having to pay for my daughter’s education and pay for my own [education] is preventing me from owning a house,” Calhoon told ABC News. “I’m hoping that they get discharged. I’m going to buy a home.”

Nick Fuller, 27, doesn’t yet qualify for PSLF. He earns just under $50,000 in the upper peninsula region of Michigan and is part of a generation of younger teachers who could be facing even tougher decisions when repayments start.

“It makes getting a second job more likely,” said Fuller, who has $16,000 left in student loan debt.

“I’ve actually been applying for some different jobs as well — still in the teaching field — but in districts that pay more money,” Fuller said in an interview from a cabin at his summer camp counseling job. “A lot of this money is just stockpiling away in my bank account to use to either move or to pay down my student loans a little bit once they come back and out of forbearance.”

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(SIOUX CITY, Iowa) — During his campaign swing through Iowa, former Vice President Mike Pence encountered a resident angry over his role in certifying Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 presidential election on Jan. 6, 2021.

“Do you ever second-guess yourself?” a woman asked Pence during a campaign stop Wednesday evening at Pizza Ranch, after noting that he “changed history” and that “if it wasn’t for [Pence’s] votes, Biden wouldn’t be in the White House.”

Pence defended his actions, calling the events of that day “misunderstood” in the face of former President Donald Trump’s continued false assertion that Pence could have overturned the results of the last election, something he had authority to do.

“The Constitution affords no authority — the vice president or anyone else — to reject votes or return votes to the states. Never been done before, should never be done. And I’m sorry, ma’am, but that’s actually what the Constitution says,” Pence told her.

“No vice president in American history ever asserted the authority that you have been convinced that I had. And I will tell you, with all due respect, I said before — I said when I announced: President Trump was wrong about my authority that day and is still wrong,” he said.

Pence directly answered the woman’s claim that he had “a constitutional right … to send those votes back to the states,” by explaining that elections are determined at the state level; his role was just to oversee Congress’ certification of the 2020 Electoral College results.

Asked about the exchange with reporters after the event, Pence said that he welcomed the opportunity to explain his actions on Jan. 6, when a mob of Trump supporters stormed the Capitol, overrode security and vandalized the building, sending Pence and other lawmakers into hiding.

“Frankly, I welcomed the opportunity to speak about it today. Because I know that my former running mate continues to hold the view that I had some authority that the Constitution had never given any vice president in history, and did not give me,” Pence said.

“That’s why I looked her in the eye and I said President Trump was wrong then, and President Trump is still wrong. I had no right to overturn the election,” he added.

Pence, who has fielded a number of questions on the campaign trail related how his candidacy is different from that of his former running mate, maintains that he “stood loyal to Trump until my oath to the Constitution required me to step away,” among a number of veiled swipes at his former boss, usually centered around the value of civility in political life.

But the confrontation with the Iowan was the first time in a multi-day, question-filled campaign swing in the Hawkeye State in which Pence had to deal with suggestions he had been disloyal to Trump.

The encounter illuminated a persistent question looming over Pence’s White House bid: Could he campaign — and win — despite Trump supporters seeing him as the chief reason Trump is not currently in the White House?

Nationally, Pence trails Trump in the polls by more than 46 points, according to FiveThirtyEight’s polling averages.

Pence thinks he can. “Ultimately, I think that the people in our movement, like most Americans, cherish our Constitution,” he said. “I have great confidence in Republican voters. I know the people of our movement.”

In Sioux City on Wednesday, Pence told the crowd that in order for Republicans to win upcoming elections — especially after the pitfalls of the 2022 midterms — they would need to move on from election denialism.

“I really think this next election has got to be about the future. If we spend the next election talking about the past, you’re going to get four more years of Democrats in the White House,” Pence said.

“Our candidates that spent the 22 midterm elections talking about re-litigating the last election, lost and they lost in places we should have won.”

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(WASHINGTON) — The Justice Department on Wednesday released a slightly less-redacted version of the affidavit used to justify last summer’s search of former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate, hours after a federal judge ordered the department to do so.

The new version included no meaningful revelations about the DOJ’s probe, but demonstrated the breadth of evidence investigators had already accumulated prior to the raid.

FBI agents raided the Florida property last August in search of classified documents that authorities say Trump refused to return after leaving the White House. Last month the former president pleaded not guilty to a 37-count indictment that included 31 counts of willful retention of national defense information.

The 32-page affidavit, signed by U.S. Magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhart prior to the raid in early August of 2022, includes details that ultimately wound up in the charging documents for Trump and his aide, Walt Nauta.

Among the newly released material is a photograph of at least 40 boxes in a room at Mar-a-Lago, the purpose of which, investigators wrote, “was to show FPOTUS the volume of boxes that remained in the STORAGE ROOM.”

Investigators also referenced security camera videos obtained as part of an earlier subpoena, one of which showed Nauta moving boxes in and out of a storage area “approximately three and a half hours” before escorting a member of Trump’s legal team through the area.

In the document, investigators wrote that they believed several areas of the estate potentially contained classified documents.

Accordingly, they wrote, “Based on the foregoing facts and circumstances, I submit that probable cause exists to believe that evidence, contraband, fruits of crime, or other items illegally possessed in violation 18 U.S.C. §§ 793(e), 2071, or 1519 will be found at the PREMISES.”

“Further, I submit that this affidavit supports probable cause for a warrant to search the PREMISES,” investigators wrote.

The document was released after Reinhart ruled on Wednesday against the full affidavit being unsealed, but ordered that “additional portions of the search warrant application should be unsealed,” according to the court filing.

The DOJ last August released a redacted version of the affidavit after a coalition of news organizations, including ABC News, had argued that the release was in the public interest.

DOJ officials had opposed the unsealing, saying in court filings that “There remain compelling reasons, including to protect the integrity of an ongoing law enforcement investigation that implicates national security, that support keeping the affidavit sealed.”

Trump has denied all wrongdoing in the case and has called the probe a political witch hunt.

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(WASHINGTON) — The Jan. 6 defendant arrested near the Washington, D.C., home of former President Barack Obama last week attempted to evade the Secret Service and was looking for “entrance points” along the street to enter the restricted area, court documents filed by prosecutors Wednesday said.

Taylor Taranto allegedly made “several concerning statements” while livestreaming outside the Obama home, prosecutors said in a memo ahead of Taranto’s detention hearing originally set for Wednesday afternoon. (The hearing was subsequently rescheduled.)

Taranto is facing misdemeanor charges related to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, but despite the lower-level allegations, the federal government asked he be locked up pending his trial.

In the detention memo, the government also alleges Taranto re-posted a post from former President Donald Trump citing what was supposedly the location of the Obama home.

“On June 29, 2023, Former President Donald Trump posted what he claimed was the address of Former President Barack Obama on the social media platform Truth Social. Taranto used his own Truth Social account to re-post the address,” the government said.

“On Telegram, Taranto then stated, ‘We got these losers surrounded! See you in hell, Podesta’s and Obama’s,'” according to prosecutors.

“Taranto differs from other misdemeanor defendants charged for participating in the January 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol,” the detention memo filed by federal prosecutors said. “Taranto has continued to act on the same motivations that caused him to breach the Capitol by communicating threats to lawmakers who oppose his views. He has attempted to express those threats by breaching an elementary school where he projected footage of the January 6 attack because of his impression that such conduct would convey ‘shockwaves’ to a member of Congress who resided nearby, doing so because of his belief that the Congressman ‘hated’ Capitol riot participants.”

Federal prosecutors allege that Taranto used his YouTube channel to livestream himself at a Maryland elementary school, where he, among other things, walked around the school, into the gymnasium and used a film projector to project a film related to Jan. 6.

He said he chose the school because of its proximity to Rep. Jamie Raskin’s house, a Democrat on the House’s previous Jan. 6 committee and leading Trump critic, but said he didn’t tell his viewers where Raskin lived because he wanted Raskin “to myself,” prosecutors said.

Prosecutors also alleged that Taranto threatened House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, former President Obama and former Obama aide and current Biden White House official John Podesta.

“Coming at you McCarthy. Can’t stop what’s coming. Nothing can stop what’s coming,” he allegedly said during a livestream.

Taranto’s lack of an address frustrated law enforcement attempting to locate and arrest him.

Prosecutors also said he made several threats to blow up federal buildings.

Taranto has 20 firearms registered to him and two were with him in the car when authorities searched his car after he was arrested last week, they said.

“To date, the remaining 18 guns are at large; law enforcement has neither custody of those guns nor knowledge of their whereabouts,” the detention memo says.

Tartanto allegedly entered the Capitol on Jan. 6 and fought with other rioters using a purported cane, which prosecutors said was for the explicit purpose of using as a weapon.

In June, he was also, according to prosecutors, outside of the D.C. jail, in what is called “Freedom Corner,” an area for supporters of those arrested during the Jan. 6 riot to protest their detention.

“Taranto has been banned from the area due to his offensive conduct toward other protestors,” court documents say. “It has also been reported that he was displaying erratic. and incoherent behavior.”

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(COLUMBUS, Ohio) — An amendment that would create a constitutional right to an abortion in Ohio came one step closer to a vote on Wednesday, as proponents of abortion access submitted nearly twice the number of signatures needed for the measure to appear on the November ballot.

The amendment’s backers filed over 700,000 signatures to the Ohio Secretary of State’s office. Now, county officials have until July 20 to determine whether at least 413,487 of those signatures are valid, qualifying the amendment for a popular vote.

“Ohio voters are extremely pro-choice,” said Marcela Azevedo, president of the Ohio Physicians for Reproductive Rights. “They do believe that abortion is a personal, family, medical decision, and they do not feel that it’s within the government’s right to file someone’s bodily autonomy.”

The margin of victory needed to make the amendment law will be determined next month, in an unusually-timed August election that has left elections officials scrambling. Republican state lawmakers set up the special election in a last-minute bid to raise the voter threshold needed to adopt a constitutional amendment from a simple majority to 60%.

“If any outside group believes its ideas are worthy of inclusion in Ohio’s constitution, then they should be able to earn the widespread public support that a 60% vote margin will require,” Ohio state Rep. Brian Stewart, a Republican, said in defense of the August election.

Abortion rights groups have blasted the special election as anti-democratic.

“They have tried everything under the sun to stop this,” Azevedo said. “These are extreme measures and, to be honest, desperate.”

Abortion is currently legal in Ohio through 22 weeks of pregnancy, or most of the way through the second trimester. After the overturning of the landmark abortion case Roe v. Wade, Ohio lawmakers passed a “heartbeat bill” that banned doctors from performing abortions after cardiac activity was detected — which can be as early as six weeks into a pregnancy — though the earliest restrictions are currently blocked in court.

The proposed amendment would establish a “fundamental right to reproductive freedom” with “reasonable limits.”

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(WASHINGTON) — The Pentagon will tighten existing security controls on access to classified information in the wake of the arrest of Jack Teixeira for allegedly being behind the Discord leak of classified documents.

The Massachusetts Air National Guardsman had a top secret clearance because of his job as an IT technician at Otis Air National Guard Base, but he was found to be accessing documents that contained information that he did not need to know, prompting a 45-day review ordered by Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin to see whether the department had systemic issues in issuing security clearances. Teixeira pleaded not guilty to six counts of willful retention and transmission of national defense information last month.

The findings, released Wednesday, revealed that “there wasn’t a single point of failure,” according to a senior defense official.

“The way to think about it is there are contributing factors to any security incident. And so this was an opportunity while the other work that goes on with the Air Force and the law enforcement investigation to make sure that we looked at this as quickly as possible to make sure that we made the improvements as quickly,” the official said.

“What we see here is we have a growing ecosystem of classified facilities and that the local level managers have the best picture and that we are training our workforce in an understandable way for the information that they are working,” the official explained.

The overwhelming majority of DOD personnel were following security procedures for accessing top secret documents, the review found, but the official said it also found “areas where the Department should improve its security posture and accountability measures” including improving accountability for accessing classified documents.

Last week, Austin approved the recommendations made by an internal DOD team. Recommendations called for setting up “Top Secret Control Officers” for units, the establishment of a new office for insider threats, and plans for a real-time detection collection system about who is having access in top secret work areas.

Pressed about whether the DOD is looking to restrict the number of people who have access to classified documents, the official responded, “No.”

“We’re looking to ensure that we have the right need to know procedures to ensure that the information that is available on classified networks is accessed by those with access,” the official added.

“This is about making sure we’re validating need to know, not necessarily turning off access,” emphasized the official.

And the official said that in the near term, DOD is looking at how that ecosystem for classified information works and referenced a “kind of digital passport validating need to know when we understand what folks are able to access.”

As part of the recommendations, DOD is going to re-emphasize existing security controls and clarifying overlapping policies that may have confused officials in some parts of the department. For example, having top secret control officers was already allowed under existing policy as an optional practice, but now they will be required.

“I think in looking at this, without focusing into the specifics of this exact case, I think those ambiguities are the types of things that we are looking at over these coming months to make sure it is as clear as possible and reflective of today’s security environment,” said the official.

The official did not express surprise that these kinds of ambiguities had developed in such a large department as these policies have “layered on top of each other as this has grown and as this complex classified information environment has grown” and “that there is a need to make sure that we are looking at them from a stand-back distance to make sure they’re understandable and that our workforce can use them.”

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(OHIO) — An Ohio man pleaded guilty to raping a then-9-year-old girl who later sought an out-of-state abortion in a case that became a flashpoint in the national abortion rights debate after Roe v. Wade was overturned.

Gerson Fuentes, 28, was sentenced to life in prison on Wednesday after pleading guilty to two counts of rape of a child under 10. He has the possibility of parole after 25 years, Franklin County Judge Julie Lynch said.

Fuentes was arrested last year after the victim identified him as the assailant, according to the complaint. He reportedly confessed to the rape when detectives brought him to police headquarters for a saliva test, the complaint said.

Fuentes initially pleaded not guilty to the crime and a trial was scheduled to begin Wednesday when he appeared in court and changed his plea. Fuentes will be registered as a sex offender for life and will be on supervised release for five years if released.

Lynch said in court that the girl’s family agreed to the jointly recommended sentence of life in prison with the possibility of parole after a minimum of 25 years.

“This is a hard pill for this court to swallow, to take this joint recommendation,” Lynch said. “If that family hadn’t begged me to take this joint recommendation, this would never have happened.”

Defense attorney Zachary Olah told reporters in court that Fuentes was “anxious to get it resolved.”

“We’re pleased that we could get it resolved,” Olah said. “We’re happy that we were able to get it done today for everybody involved.”

ABC News did not immediately receive a comment from the Franklin County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office on the plea deal.

Fuentes was the live-in boyfriend of the mother at the time of the assault and was identified through DNA, prosecutors said in court Wednesday. He admitted to having sex with the girl two times while living with her in the Columbus home, prosecutors said.

Authorities said the victim was raped in mid-May 2022 and traveled to Indianapolis in neighboring Indiana the following month to undergo a medical abortion at the age of 10.

A ban on abortion about six weeks into pregnancy had recently gone into effect in Ohio, following the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision overturning Roe. The so-called heartbeat law has no exceptions in the case of rape or incest.

The case drew national attention following an Indianapolis Star report that included comments from the Indianapolis obstetrician-gynecologist who performed the abortion, Dr. Caitlin Bernard.

Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita, a Republican who opposes abortion, sought to suspend Bernard’s license, claiming that she violated federal and state law relating to patient privacy and reporting child abuse, sparking a yearlong dispute.

In May, the Indiana Medical Licensing Board decided to reprimand and fine Bernard $3,000 after ruling that she violated patient privacy laws by talking to a newspaper reporter about providing the abortion. The board refused to suspend Bernard’s license and dismissed Rokita’s allegations that Bernard violated state law by not reporting the child abuse to Indiana authorities.

In her testimony before the board, Bernard heavily criticized Ohio and Indiana politicians for politicizing the case.

“I think that if the Attorney General, Todd Rokita, had not chosen to make this his political stunt we would not be here today,” Bernard said. “I don’t think that anyone would have been looking into this story as any different than any other interview that I have ever given if it was not politicized the way that it was by public figures in our state and in Ohio.”

Abortion rights groups are now seeking to enshrine abortion rights in Ohio’s constitution. Ohioans United for Reproductive Rights said Wednesday they delivered more than 700,000 petition signatures — nearly double the amount needed — in a step toward placing a measure protecting abortion rights on the state’s November ballot. The signatures are now under review.

Currently, abortions are legal in Ohio through 22 weeks, according to the Guttmacher Institute. The “heartbeat bill” that bans abortions after cardiac activity can be detected — roughly six weeks into pregnancy — remains blocked as legal challenges play out.

ABC News’ Jeremy Edwards and Nadine El-Bawab contributed to this report.

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