Politics

(WASHINGTON) — Republicans on Capitol Hill appeared frustrated with the weeklong controversy sparked by Rep. Madison Cawthorn, who made unsubstantiated claims in a recent interview that some of his colleagues invited him to sex parties and used cocaine.

“It’s pretty clear to me that Madison must have a far more active social life than any other member of Congress that I’m aware of,” Rep. Dusty Johnson, R-S.D., said Friday on Capitol Hill. “What he’s saying can’t possibly be true.”

The 26-year-old freshman Republican lawmaker from North Carolina earlier this month claimed that he had been invited to sex parties by colleagues and had witnessed representatives using cocaine in front of him.

“I look at all these people, a lot of them that I’ve always looked up to through my life, always paid attention to politics, guys that, you know — then all of the sudden you get invited to, like, ‘Oh hey, we’re going to have kind of a sexual get-together at one of our homes. You should come,’ he said. “And I’m like, ‘What? What did you just ask me to come to?’ And then you realize they’re asking you to come to an orgy,” Cawthorn said during a podcast interview with the “Warrior Poet Society.”

He had been asked by the podcast host if his experience in Washington as a freshman lawmaker comported with the dark drama depicted in Netflix’s “House of Cards,” the story of an ambitious lawmaker’s murderous and cutthroat climb to the presidency.

Cawthorn continued on the podcast: “Or the fact that, you know, there’s some of the people that are leading on the movement to try and remove addiction in our country, and then you watch them do a key bump of cocaine right in front of you. And it’s like, this is wild.”

Cawthorn’s remarks sparked fury among his Republican colleagues on Capitol Hill this week, who angrily confronted the issue during a closed-door conference meeting Tuesday. At this meeting, House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy pledged to speak to Cawthorn about the racy remarks.

On Wednesday, Cawthorn was hauled into McCarthy’s office to explain himself.

The meeting, which lasted 30 minutes, was attended by Cawthorn, McCarthy, House Republican Whip Steve Scalise and GOP Rep. Mike Johnson, who had been assigned to mentor the freshman lawmaker last year.

McCarthy told reporters following the meeting that Cawthorn “did not tell the truth” and that he had admitted to exaggerating his claims. McCarthy said he told Cawthorn to change his behavior, otherwise there would be consequences.

“This is unacceptable. There’s no evidence to this,” McCarthy said. “That’s not becoming of a congressman. He did not tell the truth.”

“In the interview, he claims he watched people do cocaine. Then when he comes in, he tells me, he says he thinks he saw maybe a staffer in a parking garage from 100 yards away and tells me that he doesn’t know what cocaine is basically,” McCarthy said.

“The Constitution gives you the age when you could serve in Congress. But when you’re in Congress, you should respect the institution and you should focus on the work that you should do,” McCarthy said.

He said he told Cawthorn that he had to “earn his trust” back, or else he could lose his committee assignments or face other punishment.

“He’s got a lot of members very upset,” McCarthy said, adding, “You can’t make statements like that, as a member of Congress; it affects everybody else and the country as a whole.”

A source familiar with details of the meeting with Republican leadership said Cawthorn clarified that multiple individuals were not involved with the sex parties, but that he was invited to a sex party by one colleague. When he was pressed to provide a name, Cawthorn refused and “backpedaled” his claims.

Politico first reported details of the meeting.

During his remarks to reporters, McCarthy pointed to other transgressions the young lawmaker had committed in recent months, including driving with a suspended license, inviting a congressional candidate on the House floor without permission and then lying about it and referring to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy as a “thug.”

Cawthorn’s office did not return multiple requests for comment to ABC News, nor has Cawthorn provided proof to back up his claims.

Sources familiar with the meeting told ABC News that the Republican leaders asked Cawthorn to issue a public apology and clarify his remarks.

Cawthorn has not done so, but he did send a letter to constituents and even issued a new campaign ad, in which he defiantly said, “I will never bow to the mob.”

“There are many who despise the great work we’re doing to represent western North Carolina, but I promise, I will stay focused on the work that still needs to be done in Washington for my beautiful district,” Cawthorn said.

Rep. Troy Nehls, R-Texas, who appeared visibly frustrated with Cawthorn during an interview with ABC News on Friday, called the allegations “irresponsible.”

“If you say something like that, you corroborate that with other people,” Nehls said. “Listen, we all make mistakes in our lives.”

Rep. Don Bacon, a veteran GOP lawmaker from Nebraska, told ABC News that Cawthorn’s recent comments have reflected poorly on Congress as an institution.

“Allegations like that, if they’re not true, hurt the whole institution,” Bacon said. “I think the view of the conference is, if they’re true, name names.”

“Congress has got a low favorable rating, we’ve got to do better than this,” he said.

Both of North Carolina’s Republican senators — Richard Burr and Thom Tillis — said they won’t back Cawthorn in his upcoming primary race.

“On any given day, he’s an embarrassment,” Burr told reporters.

Democrats also pounced on the controversy.

“Not sure why Republicans are acting so shocked by Cawthorn’s alleged revelations about their party,” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., tweeted. “One of their members is being investigated for sex trafficking a minor and they’ve been pretty OK w/ that. They issued more consequences to members who voted to impeach Trump.”

It’s been a dizzying week for Cawthorn, who is thought to have ambitions for higher office after unexpectedly winning a seat in Congress vacated by former GOP Rep. Mark Meadows, who left to serve as former president Donald Trump’s chief of staff at the White House.

Cawthorn has embraced Trump since taking office — saying he has called him up for advice in the last year.

The former president is clearly still on his side.

On Friday, Trump announced Cawthorn would be a guest at his rally in North Carolina next weekend.

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(WASHINGTON) — New cars in the U.S. will need to meet stricter fuel economy standards, the Biden administration announced Friday.

The rule will require passenger cars, trucks and vans produced for the model year 2026 to average 49 miles per gallon, the Department of Transportation said. It will also increase fuel efficiency 8% annually for model years 2024-2025 and 10% annually for the model year 2026.

“Starting in model two-year 2024, when these standards take effect, Americans buying a new vehicle will spend less on gas than they would have if we hadn’t taken this step,” Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said at a press conference at the agency’s headquarters Friday.

The administration says the new requirements will reduce fuel use by more than 200 billion gallons through 2050, and estimates it will prevent 5.5 trillion pounds of carbon dioxide from going into the atmosphere between now and 2050.

“These vehicles will be better for the environment, safer than ever, and cost less to fuel over their lifetimes,” added Dr. Steven Cliff, the deputy administrator for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

The move comes amid high gas prices across the country. President Joe Biden announced Thursday that he was ordering the release of roughly 1 million barrels of oil per day from the nation’s strategic petroleum reserve over the next six months to reduce energy and gas prices.

Ford Motor Company applauded the announcement in a statement saying it’s “an important step toward achieving our shared national goals.”

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(SACRAMENTO, Calif.) — A California task force’s decision to limit reparations for slavery to people who can trace their lineage to free and enslaved Black people living in the U.S. during the 19th century has drawn criticism from task force members and experts who say the decision makes eligibility difficult to prove and narrows slavery’s impact on African Americans today.

The committee, convened in 2020 through legislation signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom, delayed deciding who would be eligible for reparations in February. Some members wanted reparations to go solely towards descendants of Black people during the 19th century while others argued financial reparations should go to all Black people in the state regardless of lineage, including Caribbean and African people.

The task force voted 5-4 in favor of limiting compensation to direct descendants.

Civil rights attorney Lisa Holder, a member of the task force, argued in favor of expanding the pool of those receiving reparations.

“Anyone who has some proximity to those harms and is a person with black skin needs to be included in the broader class, then we can decide, to then differentiate in terms of who gets more reparations, but we can’t just exclude people who were harmed, right off the bat,” Holder said before the vote Tuesday.

Jovan Lewis, a University of California, Berkeley, professor and task force member, voiced support for limiting reparations.

“And so we’re talking about…reparations being the opportunity for African Americans who are foundational, to this country, being able to identify themselves and be identified as a distinct group,” Lewis said at the hearing.

Tony Burroughs, the founder and CEO of the Center for Black Genealogy, told ABC News there are several issues with using family lineage to determine reparations. One is faulty oral history – family stories changing as they are passed down from generation to generation. Another is that many records of those enslaved are not readily available, as there is limited written history of enslaved people.

Names also pose a problem for those seeking compensation, Burroughs said. Family names may have changed since the 19th century. Names were also spelled differently back then, he said.

The task force also faces questions about what constitutes reparations.

“Direct cash payments, is only one form but then there’s also restitution… And then satisfaction in the more symbolic forms of reparations, like a formal apology commemoration,” Kamilah Moore, an attorney and chair of the task force, told ABC News.

And while the task force can create recommendations, their findings will not automatically become law. It will then have to be taken up by the California legislature before it can reach the governor’s desk to become law.

“That’s our biggest hurdle of finding 41 votes on the assembly side once we’re finished with this project, and 21 on my side of the house, to get this to the governor’s desk, and hopefully he’ll add his signature to whatever we come up with that we feel will not make people whole, but at least try to recognize and address it makes a level of atonement,” California state Sen. Steve Bradford, a task force member, told ABC News.

Reparations have been paid out to other groups in the past. The federal Civil Liberties Act of 1988 granted reparations to Japanese Americans who were interned by the U.S. government in camps during World War II. The act gave each surviving victim an official apology and $20,000.

“There were a lot of folks who weren’t born during World War II, when the Japanese were interned, but the state in this country found a way to pay reparations to Japanese Americans…we have been at the table making sure that they were made whole,” Bradford told ABC News.

The task force says it plans on publishing its first report findings in June, focusing on the history of enslavement, and its effects on African Americans including mass incarceration, poverty and Jim Crow-era segregation.

The task force’s recommendations, regardless of the outcome, could set a precedent for the rest of the nation on reparations for slavery.

“It is often said, so goes California so goes the nation, this is where this nation should be,” Bradford said. “They should be following the lead of California on reparations… there’s still a lot of healing that needs to be done not just in California but in this country, and we’re willing to step out and lead by example. So I hope they follow the work that we’re doing here in California.”

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(WASHINGTON) — The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced it is officially ending Title 42, the controversial policy implemented by the Trump administration restricting migrants from coming into the country under the auspices of a public health emergency.

The policy was first enacted at the beginning of the pandemic and has remained in place since then, despite advocates criticizing the administration for keeping the policy in place.

The lifting of Title 42 will occur on May 23 to give the Department of Homeland Security adequate time to prepare, including getting more COVID-19 vaccine doses and other measures to deal with the expected influx of migrants, the CDC termination notice written by Director Rochelle Walensky says. Earlier this week, the department gave reporters an estimate that up to 18,000 migrants could be apprehended at the border each day if Title 42 were to be lifted.

“DHS has represented that over the next several weeks it is taking important steps to implement processes in preparation for the full resumption of border operations,” the order says.

The termination notice says that Title 42 was implemented to prevent diseases from coming into the United States for only a period of time and DHS was consulted in the termination of this rule.

“Following an assessment of the current epidemiologic status of the COVID-19 pandemic and the U.S. government’s ongoing response efforts, I find there is no longer a public health justification for the August order and previous orders issued under these authorities,” Walensky writes.

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said in a statement that Title 42 is “not an immigration authority, but rather a public health authority used by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to protect against the spread of communicable disease.”

“Once the Title 42 Order is no longer in place, DHS will process individuals encountered at the border pursuant to Title 8, which is the standard procedure we use to place individuals in removal proceedings,” Mayorkas said. “Nonetheless, we know that smugglers will spread misinformation to take advantage of vulnerable migrants. Let me be clear: those unable to establish a legal basis to remain in the United States will be removed.”

Homeland Security and State Department officials on a call with reporters Friday sought to reassure the American public that there is a plan in place to deal with the increase in migrants along the U.S.-Mexico border that lifting Title 42 will trigger.

One of the driving reasons behind the delayed implementation of the Title 42 repeal is to allow authorities at the border time to ramp up the vaccination program announced last month, administration officials said Friday.

“That is going to take some time to ramp up,” a senior DHS official said. “The time period is meant to ensure that we can do processing safely and humanely and consistent with best public health practices.”

This week, CBP is distributing about 2,000 vaccines a day at 11 locations and plans to scale up the process in coming weeks to distribute 6,000 vaccines a day at more than two dozen locations along the border, one official said. Migrants will be given Pfizer and Moderna vaccines and those who refuse will either be detained or released with more stringent monitoring requirements, the official said.

Officials said they are beefing up CBP and ICE officials at the border to deal with the expected influx of migrants. Border Patrol sources tell ABC News they are hiring as many agents as they can to help with potential processing increases.

DHS officials told reporters the decision to terminate Title 42 was part of a “fact finding” mission about a “range of items” and trends on the southwest border.

While the May 23 decision runs contrary to demands from advocates to immediately repeal the policy, agents at the border remain concerned that they will not have enough time to ramp up processing capacity in the event of the anticipated migration surge.

FEMA is continuing to work with local nonprofits and municipal governments to fold them into the planning process for handling migrants as they’re released.

Officials told reporters they’ve been working with immigration groups to identify the particularly vulnerable individuals who are in Mexico and are looking for ways to “streamline the process.”

ABC News’ Mireya Villarreal contributed to this report.

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(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden touted the nation’s economic recovery on Friday while also acknowledging the financial hardships currently intensified by the war in Ukraine.

“Americans are back to work,” Biden said from the White House. “Record job creation. Record unemployment decline. Record wage gains.”

U.S. employers added 431,000 jobs in March and the unemployment rate dropped to 3.6%, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said Friday.

“Even though we created a record number of jobs we know — I know that this job is not finished. We need to do more to get prices under control. Putin’s invasion of Ukraine has driven up gas prices and food prices all over the world,” Biden continued, noting his unprecedented order Thursday to release up to 180 million barrels of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.

Biden did not take reporters’ shouted questions on inflation following his prepared remarks.

Though the March report came in slightly below economists’ expectations, the numbers for January and February were revised higher to show 95,000 more jobs added in those months.

The report also showed that notable job gains continued in leisure and hospitality, professional and business services, retail trade and manufacturing.

The labor force participation rate, or the number of people in the economy looking for work, is inching almost back to where it was before the pandemic. As employees head back to the office, teleworking fell to 10% from 13% the previous month.

March marks the 11th consecutive month of job growth above 400,000. According to The Wall Street Journal, this is the strongest job growth in the U.S. since 1939.

More than 19.9 million of the 22 million jobs lost at the peak of the pandemic have now been recovered, with economists expecting a full recovery by the summer.

“The March jobs report was right down the fairway – lots of jobs, lower unemployment, and higher labor force participation. The job market is rip-roaring. While not quite back to full-employment, the economy is close, and at the current pace of job growth will be there by summer,” Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics, wrote on Twitter. “But it is somewhat disquieting in that the job market must cool off quickly, or inflation, our number one economic problem, will soon be a much bigger one.”

The report, while strong, comes amid soaring gasoline prices and 40-year high inflation, which has cost Biden in the polls ahead of this year’s midterm elections. Seventy percent of Americans disapprove of his handling of inflation, according to an ABC News/Ipsos poll released earlier this month.

Meanwhile, the Federal Reserve just two weeks ago raised short-term interest rates for the first time since 2018 and said it will raise them six more times this year in an attempt to offset inflation.

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(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden is expected to tout the nation’s economic recovery when he delivers remarks from the White House on Friday.

U.S. employers added 431,000 jobs in March and the unemployment rate dropped to 3.6%, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said Friday.

Though the March report came in slightly below economists’ expectations, the numbers for January and February were revised higher to show 95,000 more jobs added in those months.

Notable job gains continued in leisure and hospitality, professional and business services, retail trade and manufacturing.

The labor force participation rate, or the number of people in the economy looking for work, is inching almost back to where it was before the pandemic. As employees head back to the office, teleworking fell to 10% from 13% the previous month.

March marks the 11th consecutive month of job growth above 400,000. According to The Wall Street Journal, this is the strongest job growth in the U.S. since 1939.

More than 19.9 million of the 22 million jobs lost at the peak of the pandemic have now been recovered, with economists expecting a full recovery by the summer.

“The March jobs report was right down the fairway – lots of jobs, lower unemployment, and higher labor force participation. The job market is rip-roaring. While not quite back to full-employment, the economy is close, and at the current pace of job growth will be there by summer,” Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics, wrote on Twitter. “But it is somewhat disquieting in that the job market must cool off quickly, or inflation, our number one economic problem, will soon be a much bigger one.”

The report, while strong, comes amid soaring gasoline prices and 40-year high inflation, which has cost Biden in the polls ahead of this year’s midterm elections. Seventy percent of Americans disapprove of his handling of inflation, according to an ABC News/Ipsos poll released earlier this month.

Meanwhile, the Federal Reserve just two weeks ago raised short-term interest rates for the first time since 2018 and said it will raise them six more times this year in an attempt to offset inflation.

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(WASHINGTON) — The House is once again poised to pass legislation to decriminalize marijuana at the federal level.

The Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement Act, known as the MORE Act, would remove marijuana from the controlled substances list, leaving it up to states to set their own laws. It would also release people incarcerated on cannabis-related offenses of less than 30 grams and expunge criminal penalties associated with those who manufacture, distribute and possess it.

“There’s so many discussions that have gone on over the years about the use of marijuana or cannabis or whatever. The fact is, it exists. It’s being used. We’ve got to address how it is treated legally,” Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Thursday during her weekly press conference.

Congress has tried, unsuccessfully, to pass this type of legislation before. The House passed a version of the same bill in December 2020, but it was stalled in the Senate because then-Majority Leader Mitch McConnell never brought it to the floor.

The legislation is an attempt to reverse the harmful effects stemming from the “war on drugs,” a global campaign started in the 1970s by former President Richard Nixon with the stated goal of eliminating illegal drug use and trade in the United States. When former President Ronald Reagan took office, he substantially increased the scope of the drug war to focus on criminal punishment rather than rehabilitation and treatment. That drastically increased the number of incarcerated non-violent drug offenders, with a disproportionate impact on communities of color.

“More than anything else, the MORE Act is about ending and reversing decades of failed federal policy that has taken a heavy toll on too many people across this country, with a disproportionate impact on communities of color,” Rep. Nadler, D-N.Y., who authored the bill, said in a statement to ABC News.

Black people are almost four times more likely to be arrested for marijuana possession compared with their white counterparts despite using it at similar rates, according to a 2020 American Civil Liberties Union report.

“The sentence doesn’t really end after we get those folks out of prison,” said Stephen Post, campaign strategist at the Last Prisoner Project, a nonprofit advocating for reforming marijuana laws and releasing people incarcerated on marijuana offenses from prison.

“Whether it be denying them federal relief or impeding them from getting licensure for work, all these different laws create further barriers for folks when they’re trying to reenter society,” he told ABC News.

In an effort to help restore resources to communities adversely impacted by the “war on drugs,” the bill also creates a Cannabis Justice Office charged with establishing and carrying out the Community Reinvestment Grant Program. The program would provide legal aid in civil and criminal cases, job training and health education programs, among other community initiatives.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, who vowed to make marijuana legislation a priority, is working on a separate bill with Sens. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and Cory Booker, D-N.J., that is expected to be introduced in April but would need all Democrats and at least 10 Republicans to pass the Senate.

Though roadblocks remain for federal decriminalization,18 states along with Washington, D.C., have legalized recreational marijuana and 37 states have legalized medical marijuana.

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(WASHINGTON) — Former Vice President Mike Pence announced Thursday a multi-pronged policy agenda for the Republican Party, the latest in a series of indicators he’s planning to mount a run for the presidency in 2024.

Pence sees his “Freedom Agenda” as “focused on the future” and said it “offers a clear and compelling choice to the American people,” according to a statement on his political advocacy group’s website.

While he didn’t say it outright, the timing suggests the choice he’s referring to is between far-right conservative grievances over the 2020 election championed by former President Donald Trump and Pence’s nod toward the future.

In a speech earlier this year, Pence forcibly broke from Trump, saying it was “wrong” for the former president to have pushed him to reject Electoral College votes for President Joe Biden. The pair have publicly grown apart since the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol at which Trump supporters called for Pence’s head, forcing him to hide in a secure location.

During a call with a handful of news outlets prior to the plan’s release, Pence subtly highlighted the contrast with Trump.

“Elections are about the future, and frankly the opposition would love nothing more for conservatives to talk about the past or to talk of the mess they’ve made of the president,” Pence told reporters, according to Politico. “And I think by relentlessly focusing on the future we can stop the radical left, we can turn this country around, we can win the Congress and statehouses back in 2022, and we can win back America in 2024 and beyond.”

Pence’s plan is organized into three pillars — American opportunity, American leadership and American culture — that strike largely at conservative cultural issues that helped rising stars like Virginia’s Glenn Youngkin flip blue states red. Some of those agenda items include promoting “patriotic” education, a clear reference to critical-race-theory rhetoric in the classroom, which many Republicans oppose; protecting individuals from being “censored”; “protecting female athletic competition” by barring transgender women from playing in certain sporting events; honoring “God-given worth” by ending taxpayer funded abortion and abolishing Planned Parenthood.

Pence’s plan calls for a version of election reform but doesn’t mention the fallacy pushed by Trump and his allies that the 2020 election was “stolen.” Nevertheless, Pence’s agenda pushes for a voting system in which identification is required, in-person voting is preferred and encouraged and mail-in voting is “rare.”

The Pence agenda also includes anti-Russian sentiments as the invasion of Ukraine barrels on, saying Putin “undermines freedom and democracy at home and abroad” while calling for the creation of private-sector led energy production centered around the export of American-produced natural gas that would cut Europe’s dependency on Russian oil.

According to Pence’s political group’s website, the former vice president collaborated with several dozen prominent conservatives to create his plan, including former administration officials Kellyanne Conway, Betsy DeVos, and David Bernhardt. One notable contributor is outgoing Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey, a frequent target of Trump’s harsh criticism, who drew ire from the former president for distancing himself from the Arizona audit of the 2020 election — another indicator of the daylight between Trump and Pence.

Pence is now one of two high-profile Republicans who have released formalized policy proposals for the GOP as the party attempts to secure the advantage in the upcoming midterm elections. Florida Sen. Rick Scott, who chairs the National Republican Senatorial Committee, announced his controversial 11-point plan in February. Other rumored GOP 2024 candidates, including Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ariz., have made public their priorities for the midterms and beyond.

Pence’s advocacy organization, Advancing American Freedom, rolled out his plan with a video narrated by Pence, which closely resembles a campaign tease, Thursday morning.

“Our best days are yet to come,” said Pence, “for renewing American culture, American opportunity, and American leadership, for a more perfect union for the people.”

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(WASHINGTON) — Arizona and Kentucky are moving forward on 15-week abortion bans before a Supreme Court decision in June could decide the fate of the procedure in the United States.

In Arizona, Gov. Doug Ducey signed a bill into law Wednesday after it passed the Arizona legislature last week without a single Democrat vote.

The Arizona legislation only includes exemptions for medical emergencies when continuing with the pregnancy would “create serious risk of substantial and irreversible impairment of a major bodily function” for the mother.

It does not include any exemptions for rape or incest.

“In Arizona, we know there is immeasurable value in every life — including preborn life,” Ducey, a Republican, wrote in a letter announcing the signing of the bill. “I believe it is each state’s responsibility to protect them.”

Ducey has been very vocal about his opposition to abortion and he has signed every piece of anti-abortion legislation that has crossed his desk since he took office in 2015.

“This bill stigmatizes and shames our patients who are making choices about their bodies and their lives,” Brittany Fonteno, president of Planned Parenthood Advocates of Arizona, told ABC News. “We know this is just a political move to strip people of their rights. It’s not based on any medical evidence and politicians should not play doctors.”

Under the legislation, women cannot be prosecuted for having an abortion, but doctors who perform abortions after 15 weeks would face felony charges and could see their medical licenses suspended or revoked.

Meanwhile, the Kentucky state legislature passed a similar ban Tuesday as well as other abortion restrictions.

Under what is known as HB3, any drugs used for a medication abortion — a nonsurgical procedure typically used up to 10 weeks in pregnancy — must be provided by a physician licensed to practice medicine and in good standing with Kentucky.

An in-person examination needs to be had at least 24 hours prior, during which women are informed about any risks. The drugs cannot be sent through the mail.

Abortion advocates say this will prevent many women, particularly low-income, from accessing abortion if they have to go to a clinic to receive it.

“Those with the means will always be able to access abortions; they can afford the planes, the hotel rooms,” Tamarra Wieder, state director of Planned Parenthood Alliance Advocates – Kentucky, told ABC News. “But those who are poor, live in rural communities, so far away from care, already are going to be further disenfranchised. It’s a massive burden for those who have time off work or school, find child care and make sure they can afford gas.”

Additionally, the bill requires the names of physicians who provide medication abortions to be published and a state-run “complaint portal” will be set up so people can anonymously report abortion providers who are violating the program.

Meg Stern, director of the abortion support fund for Kentucky Health Justice Network, an advocacy group, said this could lead to complaints filed by people who have personal vendettas against abortion providers.

She added that she has experienced harassment herself as a volunteer clinic escort at EMW Women’s Surgical Center, one of only two abortion providers in Kentucky.

“I’ve been physically assaulted, I’ve been followed, I’ve had my picture published on social media, I’ve had my address published — and I’m just a volunteer escort and an abortion funder,” Stern said. “I’m not giving people medicine, I’m not doing abortions, but I’m accessible, so what do we think will happen to the providers? It’s creating a headhunter type of situation.”

Wieder agreed, calling it “a hit list” that could put abortion providers in harm’s way.

Several other states, including Texas and Idaho, have passed abortion bans.

Currently, it is unconstitutional to pass abortion bans before a fetus is viable – anywhere from 22 to 26 weeks. The states are hoping the Supreme Court will change this.

In June, the court will review a 15-week ban in Mississippi and whether or not it is constitutional. If the court determines the bill is constitutional, this could mean Roe v. Wade is either overturned or fundamentally weakened.

“My personal opinion is that Kentucky lawmakers are confident SCOTUS will gut, if not destroy, Roe v. Wade,” Stern said. “And they’re counting on, even if doesn’t happen, Texas has showed a way to ban abortions despite Roe.”

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(TALLAHASSEE, Fla.) — A lawsuit has been filed against the State of Florida over the newly signed Parental Rights in Education law, dubbed the “Don’t Say Gay” law by critics, just three days after it was signed.

“Through H.B. 1557, Florida would deny to an entire generation that LGBTQ people exist and have equal dignity,” the complaint reads. “This effort to control young minds through state censorship — and to demean LGBTQ lives by denying their reality — is a grave abuse of power.”

The complaint was filed in a Tallahassee court Thursday by LGBTQ rights organizations Equality Florida, Family Equality and the National Center for Lesbian Rights, as well as several Florida families.

The complaint alleges that the law violates the constitutionally protected rights of free speech, equal protection and due process of students and families.

“We made a promise to defend the rights of all students to have a healthy environment to learn and thrive and for all parents to know their families are included,” Equality Florida said in a statement.

The law will ban classroom instruction on sexual orientation or gender identity in kindergarten through third grade or instruction on those topics “in a manner that is not age-appropriate or developmentally appropriate for students in accordance with state standards,” according to the legislation, HB 1557.

Under this law, parents can also decline any mental, emotional and physical health services available to their children at school.

Schools will be required to notify parents of their child’s use of school health services unless there is reason to believe “that disclosure would subject the student to abuse, abandonment or neglect.”

Parents could sue their school district if they believe there is a violation of any of these requirements or restrictions.

“This lawsuit is a political Hail-Mary to undermine parental rights in Florida,” a spokesperson from Gov. Ron DeSantis’ office told ABC News. “This calculated, politically motivated, virtue-signaling lawsuit is meritless, and we will defend the legality of parents to protect their young children from sexual content in Florida public schools.”

His office slammed the lawsuit, stating that the complaint claims are “erroneous.”

“This law does not chill speech — instead it returns speech on these topics to the parents,” the office said. “The law does not prohibit teachers from having opinions, lifestyles or advocacy in their personal right on their own time, and this law does not prohibit teachers from responding to student questions.”

The Sarasota School District and school board declined to comment. The other defendants in the case did not immediately respond to ABC News’ requests for comment.

Several families with LGBTQ students are listed as plaintiffs in the lawsuit.

“My school has been a safe environment where I have been able to express my identity,” said Zander Moricz, an 18-year-old high school senior and plaintiff. “I would not have been able to learn and thrive without that support. My teachers have already told me that they will no longer be able to have some of the classroom discussions that helped me feel accepted in school.”

One parent expressed concern for her transgender daughter.

“I am frightened that this new law will prevent my daughter’s teachers from protecting her from bullying at school,” said Lindsay McClelland, mother of plaintiff Jane Doe, a transgender fifth-grader at a Florida public school. “All I want is for my daughter to be able to learn in a safe environment like any other student.”

Supporters of the bill argue that schools are indoctrinating students with ideas about sexual orientation and gender identity. They say parents deserve more input in the services children receive and the conversations children are having about those topics.

“I think the last couple years have really revealed to parents that they are being ignored increasingly across our country when it comes to their kids education,” DeSantis claimed at the signing.

He added, “We will make sure that parents can send their kids to school to get an education, not an indoctrination.”

The bill is expected to go into effect July 1.

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