The other day, Sir Elton Johnperformed his forthcoming Britney Spears collab at a popular French restaurant. On Wednesday, Britney shared an extended preview of the song so fans could really hear what it sounds like — then deleted it a short time later.
If you caught it, the clip featured Britney’s rich vocals as she sings lyrics and melodies from Elton’s 1971 hit “Tiny Dancer” and his 1992 tune “The One.”
Britney also lavished praise onto the legendary hitmaker, writing in a lengthy Instagram caption, “Since most say they are honored TO KNOW ME SO WELL and only want happiness for me … you can bet your bottom dollar that THIS collaboration will heighten my year by joining your brilliant hands of play.”
Britney said, “Sir Elton I did it thanks to your genius, creative, and legendary mind !!! I am so grateful !!!”
Elton commented on the “Toxic” singer’s post: “Can’t wait for everyone to hear what we’ve been working on!”
The two have also shared a snippet of what appears to be the track’s music video. The clip opens to a field of pink roses before a rocket blasts off into the pastel-colored sky.
The British singer also took to his Instagram Story to share a “‘Hold Me Closer’ pop quiz,” where he asked fans how they are feeling about the forthcoming track, if they presaved the song and how excited they are to finally hear it when it comes out on Friday.
Congrats are in order for Volbeat frontman Michael Poulsen and his girlfriend, Jeanet, who are now married.
The Danish rockers posted a photo to Instagram from the wedding ceremony, which took place Saturday, August 20.
“Finally married. Michael Poulsen and Jeanet Poulsen: 20-08-2022,” the caption reads.
Michael, who’s been married once before, has been with Jeanet since at least 2017, when they welcomed a baby girl.
In between getting married, Michael and the rest of Volbeat have been touring in support of their new album, Servant of the Mind, which dropped last December. It includes the singles “Wait a Minute My Girl,” “Shotgun Blues” and “Temple of Ekur.”
Wet Leg, The 1975 and Yungblud are among the artists performing BBC Radio 1’s upcoming Live Lounge Month.
The annual series features artists visiting the U.K. radio station to play their new material and often a unique cover. Yungblud, for example, performed a mashup of a Taylor Swift and Avril Lavigne song during his 2020 Live Lounge set.
Other artists taking part this year include WILLOW, beabadoobee, Steve Lacy and Nova Twins.
(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden announced Wednesday that his administration is forgiving some student loan debt for U.S. borrowers and extending the federal student loan repayment pause until Dec. 31, both actions that have been highly anticipated and closely watched by millions of Americans.
The move comes a week before the pause on student loan repayments was set to expire on Aug. 31. The measure was put in place in the early days of the coronavirus pandemic and was designed to relieve borrowers from defaulting on student loans and allow them to begin repayments in good standing when the state of the economy improved.
The new changes could “provide relief to up to 43 million borrowers, including cancelling the full remaining balance for roughly 20 million borrowers,” according to a White House fact sheet.
The move could be of particular benefit to women, who hold nearly two-thirds of all student loan debt in the U.S., according to the American Association of University Women, and Black borrowers, who are disproportionately burdened by student loan debt, according to the National Consumer Law Center.
Below are some of the top questions surrounding student loan forgiveness and what experts say borrowers should consider.
How much in student loans can be forgiven?
The president tweeted an outline of the changes on Wednesday, which include forgiving up to $20,000 in student loan debt for Americans who attended colleges and universities on federal Pell grants and up to $10,000 for Americans who did not attend schools on Pell grants. This would only apply to borrowers who earn $125,000 or less per year.
When does student loan repayment start?
The federal student loan pause ends on Dec. 31. Those with student loans will have to start making repayments in January 2023.
Additionally, those with undergraduate loans will be able to cap their repayments at 5% of their monthly income.
How many Americans have student loan debt?
The federal government estimates that more than 45 million Americans have approximately $1.6 trillion in student loan debt, according to the White House fact sheet published Wednesday.
What is the average amount of student loan debt?
According to data from the U.S. Department of Education, American undergraduates hold nearly $25,000 in student loans after graduation.
Who do you contact when it’s time to enroll in a repayment plan?
Borrowers should contact their loan servicer(s) to determine how to begin or resume making repayments and to discuss specific conditions of repayments. If a borrower was using an auto-debit service previously, they should not expect the service to proceed again automatically.
What happens when you refinance a student loan?
Student loans can be federal student loans that are funded by the federal government or private loans managed by a lender like a bank, school, state agency, or other institution. Private student loans are not included in Biden’s student loan forgiveness plan.
A federal student loan can be refinanced or reorganized into a private loan with different terms, but borrowers should carefully consider the benefits and drawbacks before doing so. There are advantages a borrower may have to give up if refinancing, including qualifying for temporary loan payment relief, no interest periods, potential loan forgiveness and discharges, according to the Department of Education.
What is the best student loan repayment plan?
There are several types of student loans and a borrower will need to take a closer look at what types of loans they have — whether federal or private — and the different terms for each loan.
How else can a borrower get student loan forgiveness?
The federal government is giving borrowers until Oct. 31 to apply for a waiver and credits for past repayment periods under the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program, a federal program that forgives student loan balances after a borrower, who has worked full-time for a qualifying employer, has completed 120 qualifying payments. These payments can be ones made under income-driven repayment plans.
Under the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2018, the federal government also established a Temporary Expanded Public Service Loan Forgiveness program which may apply to borrowers who don’t necessarily qualify for the PSLF program.
Borrowers can visit the StudentAid.gov website to see if they qualify for or to apply for the PSLF/TEPSLF program and/or waivers and credits.
For additional information on the student loan forgiveness program changes and for more details that will be released in the coming weeks, borrowers can visit the StudentAid.gov website.
Paul Bersebach/MediaNews Group/Orange County Register via Getty Images
(WASHINGTON) — Some states and jurisdictions are hitting early bumps in their rollout of the U.S. government’s new approach to expand access and supply of monkeypox vaccines to more at-risk Americans, local officials have told ABC News, as providers face a steep learning curve with the new inoculation method.
Earlier this month, the Biden administration announced it was launching a new plan to increase the country’s monkeypox vaccine supply by shifting the way the shots were administered from a traditional subcutaneous injection in the arm, to an intradermal technique of smaller, shallower injections.
The new intradermal technique requires just a fraction of a vaccine per shot. Instead of using one vial per vaccination, the approach produces a total of five vaccinations per vial, according to federal officials. At the time, these officials acknowledged that giving shots this way would require more technical skill.
Now, several state and local officials from across the country have told ABC News that some of their clinicians are struggling to extract all five doses from the vial.
“We have also heard reports from some of our providers that they have been only able to extract three or four doses per vial,” Nikki Ostergaard, from the Washington State Department of Health, told ABC News.
Health officials in Texas confirmed to ABC News that although some providers have been able to successfully extract five doses from the vials, others “cannot get five doses.” In Maryland, a representative for the health department also confirmed it has heard anecdotal reports of the issues.
The Association of Immunization Managers (AIM) confirmed to ABC News that its executive director, Claire Hannan, has also heard that some clinicians are running into trouble with the extraction process, and thus, the organization is working to educate health officials to prepare them for the injection process better.
“The needles that are used make a difference. And AIM hopes that as clinicians get more proficient with the ID technique, this will improve,” a representative for the organization said in a statement.
White House National Monkeypox Response Deputy Coordinator Dr. Demetre Daskalakis told Stat News that his team has “definitely” heard of the issues arising from local jurisdictions, adding there has been a range in the number of doses clinicians are able to extract, with most reporting that they are getting between three and five doses.
Concerns about the intradermal approach from local officials
In the weeks after the U.S. government announced the shift in vaccination strategy, local officials have had some initial concerns about training health care providers on how to administer the shots with the new technique.
New York State Health Commissioner Dr. Mary T. Bassett said during a press conference this week, with Gov. Kathy Hochul, that it is “not as pleasant” to get an intradermal injection, as it can scar and is “more painful.”
“They’re more complications at the site, that these aren’t serious, but they’re unpleasant,” Bassett said.
But officials said given the ongoing crisis, vaccinating as many people as possible is crucial.
“We have been struggling with not having enough doses. And our obligation in public health is always to do the most good for the most people and intradermal administration will vastly expand our access to a scarce resource,” Bassett said at the press conference.
Hochul noted this is “an interim approach until the supply chain challenges break,” and when an unlimited number of vaccines becomes available, the state may consider going back to the original way of administering the shots.
In New York City, Health Commissioner Dr. Ashwin Vasan said Wednesday that it will take “some weeks” for the city to transition fully to an intradermal approach as they educate local clinics on the practice, but the transition is necessary because it is “really being mandated by the federal government.”
“It’s not optional,” Vasan said at a city council meeting. “The federal government has made it clear that we won’t get more vaccines until we make the switch and so we’re making the switch.”
Olivia Wilde is opening up about being served custody papers earlier this year at CinemaCon while promoting her upcoming film, Don’t Worry Darling.
In an interview with Variety, Wilde said the incident was “really vicious.”
“It was my workplace,” Wilde told the trade without naming her ex-fiancé, Jason Sudeikis, the father of their two children, Otis, 8, and Daisy, 5.
“In any other workplace, it would be seen as an attack. It was really upsetting. It shouldn’t have been able to happen.”
Following the CinemaCon incident, Sudeikis said he “deeply regret[s] what happened” and has reiterated that he had no control over it.
“Olivia’s talk was an important event for Olivia, both professionally and personally, and I am very, very sorry that the incident marred her special moment,” Sudeikis said in court documents.
Wilde was onstage for the presentation when she received an envelope that was marked “personal and confidential.” Inside were documents from Sudeikis regarding their kids and a petition to have their case heard in New York.
Wilde described the “really scary” situation as a “huge breach in security.”
“The hurdles that you had to jump through to get into that room with several badges, plus special COVID tests that had to be taken days in advance, which gave you wristbands that were necessary to gain access to the event — this was something that required forethought,” she told the outlet.
Earlier this month, a judge dismissed Sudeikis’ custody petition and sided with Wilde, saying that their case can be heard in Los Angeles, since California is their children’s home state.
Looking back on the incident now, Wilde said that those who were hurt the most were their kids.
“They’ll have to see that, and they shouldn’t ever have to know what happened,” Wilde told Variety.
(NEW YORK) — Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “special military operation” into neighboring Ukraine began on Feb. 24, with Russian forces invading from Belarus, to the north, and Russia, to the east. Ukrainian troops have offered “stiff resistance,” according to U.S. officials.
The Russian military has since launched a full-scale ground offensive in eastern Ukraine’s disputed Donbas region, capturing the strategic port city of Mariupol and securing a coastal corridor to the Moscow-annexed Crimean Peninsula.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:
Aug 24, 4:56 PM EDT
21 killed in Russian missile strike on train station
Twenty-one people were killed and another 22 were injured in a Russian missile strike on a train station in Chaplyne, in the central Ukraine region of Dnipropetrovsk, said Kyrylo Tymoshenko, deputy head of the president’s office.
-ABC News’ Christine Theodorou and Max Uzol
Aug 24, 2:55 PM EDT
Russia may hold sham referenda in occupied Ukrainian territory: White House
The White House said the U.S. believes Russia could hold “sham referenda” in occupied Ukrainian territory within days or weeks.
White House spokesman John Kirby said last month that Russia was “installing illegitimate proxy officials in the areas of Ukraine that are under its control” who would then arrange “sham referenda” as a precursor to annexation.
Kirby told reporters Wednesday that the U.S. government believes “these referenda could begin in a matter of days or weeks.”
“We have information that Russia continues to prepare to hold these sham referenda in Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, the so-called Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics,” Kirby said. “We’ve also learned that Russian leadership has instructed officials to begin preparing to hold these sham referenda, particularly in Kharkiv, as well.”
“We expect Russia to try to manipulate the results of these referenda to falsely claim that the Ukrainian people want to join Russia,” he continued. “It will be critical to call out and counter this disinformation in real time.”
“Any claim that the Ukrainian people somehow want to join Russia is simply not true,” Kirby said, citing polling data. It’s clear, he added, that Ukrainians “value and treasure their independence.”
President Joe Biden and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will speak on the phone on Thursday, Kirby said.
-ABC News’ Ben Gittleson
Aug 24, 1:41 PM EDT
Queen Elizabeth marks Ukrainian Independence Day
Queen Elizabeth released a statement Wednesday marking Ukrainian Independence Day.
“It gives me great pleasure to send Your Excellency and the people of Ukraine my warmest greetings on the celebration of your Independence Day,” she said. “In this most challenging year, I hope that today will be a time for the Ukrainian people, both in Ukraine and around the world, to celebrate their culture, history and identity. May we look to better times in the future.”
Aug 24, 9:13 AM EDT
Biden announces new aid package, congratulates Ukraine on Independence Day
President Joe Biden in a statement Wednesday said he was “proud to announce our biggest tranche of security assistance to date” to Ukraine: “approximately $2.98 billion of weapons and equipment.”
“This will allow Ukraine to acquire air defense systems, artillery systems and munitions, counter-unmanned aerial systems, and radars to ensure it can continue to defend itself over the long term,” Biden said.
Biden confirmed the money would come through the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative. The USAI money can be spent on contracts with the defense industry to produce new equipment for Ukraine.
Biden in his statement also marked Ukrainian Independence Day, saying, “Ukrainians have inspired the world with their extraordinary courage and dedication to freedom.”
“Today is not only a celebration of the past but a resounding affirmation that Ukraine proudly remains — and will remain — a sovereign and independent nation,” he said.
He continued, “I know this Independence Day is bittersweet for many Ukrainians as thousands have been killed or wounded, millions have been displaced from their homes, and so many others have fallen victim to Russian atrocities and attacks.”
“Today and every day, we stand with the Ukrainian people to proclaim that the darkness that drives autocracy is no match for the flame of liberty that lights the souls of free people everywhere,” Biden said.
Aug 23, 4:39 PM EDT
2 Zaporizhzhya power plant employees killed in shelling in city of Enerhodar
Two Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant employees were killed on their day off when Russian forces shelled the city of Enerhodar, officials said.
-ABC News’ Yuriy Zaliznyak and Dada Jovanovic
Aug 23, 2:35 PM EDT
US to announce its largest single aid package for Ukraine
The U.S. will announce its largest single aid package for Ukraine on Wednesday, according to two U.S. officials. The package is expected to be valued at roughly $3 billion — though one official told ABC News some changes could be made overnight, and $3 billion is on the higher end of the estimates.
A senior U.S. official told ABC News the package will come from Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative funds. Unlike presidential drawdown packages, which pull from existing U.S. equipment stocks, the USAI money can be spent on contracts with the defense industry to produce new equipment for Ukraine.
The U.S. has committed about $10.6 billion in military aid to Ukraine since the beginning of the Biden administration.
-ABC News’ Matt Seyler and Shannon Crawford
Aug 23, 1:54 PM EDT
Americans urged to leave Ukraine over Russian strikes on civilians
The United States is once again urging its citizens to leave Ukraine amid concerns Russia is ramping up attacks on civilians in the war-torn country.
In a security alert posted Tuesday on its website, the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv urged Americans “to depart Ukraine now using privately available ground transportation options if it is safe to do so.”
“The Department of State has information that Russia is stepping up efforts to launch strikes against Ukraine’s civilian infrastructure and government facilities in the coming days,” the embassy said in the alert. “Russian strikes in Ukraine pose a continued threat to civilians and civilian infrastructure.”
Sources within the State Department said the heightened risk of a Russian strike on highly populated centers is most directly tied to Ukraine’s Independence Day on Wednesday.
“The risks are really high,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told ABC News. “We are receiving information that there may be a provocation by the Russian Federation, by the occupiers. Therefore, we do not want large gatherings on such days. The days are beautiful, but … our neighbors are not.”
Aug 23, 9:10 AM EDT
Americans urged to leave Ukraine over Russian strikes on civilians
The United States is once again urging its citizens to leave Ukraine amid concerns Russia is ramping up attacks on civilians in the war-torn country.
In a security alert posted Tuesday on its website, the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv urged Americans “to depart Ukraine now using privately available ground transportation options if it is safe to do so.”
“The Department of State has information that Russia is stepping up efforts to launch strikes against Ukraine’s civilian infrastructure and government facilities in the coming days,” the embassy said in the alert. “Russian strikes in Ukraine pose a continued threat to civilians and civilian infrastructure.”
Aug 22, 10:59 AM EDT
FSB accuses Ukrainian special services of assassinating Darya Dugina
Russia’s FSB is accusing Ukrainian special services of assassinating Darya Dugina, the daughter of Putin ally Alexander Dugina, who was killed by an explosive this weekend.
The FSB said a Ukrainian national arrived in Russia on July 23 with her 12-year-old daughter and rented an apartment in the same Moscow building where Dugina lived, Russia’s state-run RIA Novosti reported. The woman allegedly trailed Dugina for nearly a month and then immediately left for Estonia with her daughter just after this weekend’s bombing.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said in a statement that Darya Dugina was “a bright, talented person with a real Russian heart – kind, loving, sympathetic and open.”
Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said Ukraine is working under the assumption that Russian secret services are behind the killing, saying “Ru-propaganda lives in a fictional world.”
-ABC News’ Anastasia Bagaeva and Oleksii Shemyskyo
Aug 22, 9:13 AM EDT
Air raid sirens sound across Ukraine
Air raid sirens are sounding across Ukraine.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned Russia could launch a “particularly ugly” provocation this week as Ukraine approaches its Independence Day on Wednesday.
In Kyiv, all public events are canceled and government employees have been told to work from home through the week.
In Kramatorsk, public events have been canceled for Tuesday through Thursday and public transportation has been stopped.
Aug 22, 6:16 AM EDT
Explosive under Putin ally’s car was remotely triggered, investigators say
An explosive device planted on the underside of Putin ally Alexander Dugin’s vehicle was remotely triggered, Russian investigators said.
Dugin’s daughter, Daria Dugina, was killed in a blast near Moscow on Saturday.
“A presumed explosive device planted on a Toyota Land Cruiser went off when the car was moving at full speed past Bolshiye Vyazemy in the Odintsovo urban district at about 9 p.m. on August 20, and the car caught fire,” the Russian Investigative Committee said in a statement posted to Telegram. “The woman driving the car died instantly. The victim was identified as journalist, political analyst Daria Dugina.”
Alexander and Daria attended a traditional patriotic festival on Saturday afternoon, according to the Odinstovo administration. They’d planned to leave together in the same vehicle, but Daria instead drove alone.
The Russian Investigative Committee’s press service told Interfax that Daria was assassinated.
Detectives established that the bomb was planted on the underside of the driver’s side of the vehicle, the committee said. Russian media outlets had reported that the SUV belonged to Dugin.
“Detectives and specialists from the Main Forensic Department of the Russian Investigative Committee are continuing to examine the incident scene. In particular, a forensic technician examined the charred vehicle before it was taken to a special parking lot,” the Committee said.
Biological, genetic, physical, chemical and explosive examinations have been scheduled, the committee said.
-ABC News’ Anastasia Bagaeva
Aug 21, 3:12 PM EDT
Daughter of Putin ally killed in car bomb; Schiff hopes it wasn’t ‘from Ukraine’
U.S. officials do not know who to blame for the car bomb that killed the daughter of political theorist Alexander Dugin, a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, Rep. Adam Schiff, the Democratic chair of the House Intelligence Committee, said during an interview Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
Daria Dugina, a 29-year-old TV commentator, was killed on the Mozhaisk Highway in the outskirts of Moscow on Saturday night by an explosive that had been planted in the Toyota Land Cruiser she was driving, Russia’s state-run news agency TASS reported.
Alexander Dugin, often referred to as “Putin’s brain,” had just attended “Tradition” cultural festival with his daughter, according to TASS. Russian media outlets reported that the SUV belonged to Dugin.
The Russian Investigative Committee press office told TASS Dugina’s killing was planned and contracted.
Schiff said Sunday that he had not yet been briefed on the killing and that he “couldn’t say” who is behind it, adding that he hoped it was an “internal Russian affair” rather than something “emanating from Ukraine.”
“There are so many factions and internecine warfare within Russian society, within the Russian government,” Schiff said. “Anything is possible.”
Adviser to the Ukrainian presidential office Mikhail Podolyak denied Kyiv was involved in the explosion that killed Dugina during a televised interview on Sunday.
“I emphasize that Ukraine certainly has nothing to do with this, because we are not a criminal state like the Russian Federation, and even less a terrorist state,” Podolyak said.
-ABC News’ Ben Gittleson and Patrick Reevell
Aug 20, 2:10 PM EDT
Videos circulating online show smoke over Sevastopol
Videos circulating online show smoke rising over Sevastopol, the largest city in Crimea and a major port on the Black Sea.
The city’s Russian-appointed governor said a drone was struck down and fell through the roof of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet Headquarters. Ukraine has not commented on the strike.
-ABC News’ Layla Ferris
Aug 19, 3:31 PM EDT
US to offer new $775M aid package to Ukraine
The U.S. has authorized a new $775 million military aid package for Ukraine, the Department of Defense announced on Friday.
The package will include more High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) ammunition and howitzers, as well as some firsts, including ScanEagle reconnaissance drones and Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicles.
The 15 ScanEagle drones are intended to help Ukraine identify targets and put the HIMARS and howitzers to better use, according to a senior U.S. defense official.
The 40 MRAP vehicles and other mine-clearing equipment will help Ukrainian troops cross dangerous terrain, according to the official.
“We know that Russia has heavily mined areas in parts of southern and eastern Ukraine. We know there’s a significant amount of unexploded ordinance,” the official said.
The new aid package follows a $1 billion package announced on Aug. 8.
Jackson Browne, Smokey Robinson and Elvis Costello are among the collaborators featured on actress/singer Rita Wilson‘s forthcoming album, Now & Forever: Duets, a covers collection mainly boasting renditions of 1970s hits.
According to Billboard, Wilson chose to focus on ’70s covers because of the personal significance the decade holds for her.
“I wanted to honor where I came from with songs from the ’70s,” she says in a statement. “It was really about showing enormous appreciation for the songwriting of that period — how these songs are still relevant even though they’re 50 years old.”
Rita’s duet with Browne, who’s widely considered among the most respected singer/songwriter to emerge during the ’70s, actually dates back to the 1959 Every Brothers hit “Let It Be Me.”
In a behind-the-scenes video about the making of Now & Forever posted on Wilson’s YouTube channel, Rita says, “Jackson, to me, is one of the first artists that I just fell in love with — his voice, his writing was so personal and so emotional.”
Robinson, meanwhile, is a featured on a version of the 1972 Roberta Flack and Donny Hathaway hit duet “Where Is the Love?” Costello lends his talents to a rendition of Bruce Springsteen‘s “Fire.”
Other guests artists on Now and Forever include crooner Josh Groban, Hamilton actor Leslie Odom Jr. and country stars Willie Nelson, Vince Gill, Keith Urban, Tim McGraw and Jimmie Allen.
The album also includes songs that were written and/or famously recorded by Van Morrison, Paul Simon, The Bee Gees, Bread, The Jackson 5, Harry Nilsson and Fleetwood Mac.
Now & Forever: Duets is due out September 27, and can be preorderd now.
Here’s the album’s full track list:
“Crazy Love” (Van Morrison) — with Keith Urban
“Where Is the Love?” (Roberta Flack & Donnie Hathaway) — with Smokey Robinson
“Slip Slidin’ Away” (Paul Simon) — with Willie Nelson
“Let It Be Me” (The Everly Brothers) — with Jackson Browne
“Massachusetts” (The Bee Gees) — with Leslie Odom Jr.
“Fire” (Bruce Springsteen) – with Elvis Costello
“If” (Bread) — with Tim McGraw
“I’ll Be There” (Michael Jackson) — with Jimmie Allen
“Without You” (Harry Nilsson) — with Vince Gill
“Songbird” (Fleetwood Mac) — with Josh Groban
(NEW YORK) — Indiana’s new abortion law will go into effect on Sept. 15, which would ban abortion in nearly all cases with limited exceptions including rape and incest.
Indiana was the first state to pass new legislation restricting reproductive rights after Roe v. Wade was overturned on June 24.
Dr. Katherine McHugh, a practicing doctor who provides abortion services in Indiana, spoke with ABC News’ podcast “Start Here” about how her practice has been shifting following the overturning of Roe v. Wade and how the new state law will impact her practice.
START HERE: Dr. McHugh, can you just tell me about where you work and what the last couple months have been like?
MCHUGH: Yeah, absolutely. Thanks so much for having me and for taking on this issue. I am primarily in Indianapolis, although I travel all over the state of Indiana providing abortion care. And over the last two months, we have seen a real change in our patient demographic. We’ve seen an influx of patients from outside of the state, they are coming to us from other states that have already banned abortion.
And this has all been in the setting of anticipating an abortion ban in Indiana as well. So we’ve been able to increase access over the last few months and been very fortunate that we have been able to take care of a lot of people that needed healthcare and at the same time, working with collaborative networks and strengthening those referral places because we know that we will be sending our own patients away in just a few short weeks.
The patients that we’re seeing are the ones that can afford childcare, that can afford the gas money, they can afford to take time off of work. We’re also seeing much earlier patients, patients whose pregnancies are much earlier in their gestation. People are scared. People are nervous about what it means to be pregnant in a place or in a time when all of their options are not available to them. So that is probably the most common thing that I talked about with patients, is how scared they are to be pregnant.
START HERE: That makes me curious, if there’s this fear of pregnancy from women seeking abortions, I’m wondering about the fears of women who are pregnant who aren’t seeking abortions or don’t know if they want an abortion. Is it getting more complicated, for example, for women I was mentioning earlier, who are suffering miscarriages or other abnormalities early on?
MCHUGH: That has been a complicated topic for physicians and certainly a very challenging experience for patients. Patients who have a miscarriage that is diagnosed, but the fetus still has a heartbeat– that is very complicated in states like Kentucky and Ohio that have what they’re called heartbeat bans, which means that they can’t have an abortion after the time that you can see fetal cardiac activity. So that means that even if the patient is bleeding, even if the cervix is open, and there is no way that the pregnancy is able to continue, they cannot interfere, the physicians cannot interact.
START HERE: Oh, there’s still technically a heartbeat.
MCHUGH: There is a heartbeat even though there is not a viable pregnancy. I’ve seen several people coming from surrounding states where the physicians in those states are unclear enough about the legality of interfering in what is, in the legal sense, a continuing pregnancy even though medically speaking it is not a viable pregnancy, that the patients have to come to Indiana where that doesn’t exist yet. It doesn’t have that same legal impact here in Indiana.
I saw a patient recently who came to me from out-of-state and she had a situation where she was pregnant, and she was bleeding so she went to an emergency room and had an ultrasound to evaluate what was going on. What the doctors there saw was that her pregnancy was inside the uterus, so it wasn’t an ectopic pregnancy, but she had significant bleeding and the cervix had started to open. The pregnancy already had and still had a heartbeat. She was about seven weeks pregnant.
So at this point the doctors were faced with a really challenging moment where they didn’t know what they were allowed to do legally. Could they offer what is standard of care, which would be to offer some sort of termination of this pregnancy? And they decided they could not. The reason that this situation would warrant terminating a pregnancy is called an inevitable abortion or a pregnancy that is not able to be continued. And in the intervening time, the woman or the pregnant person can lose a lot of blood and become infected, can get very very sick and can even die from this.
START HERE: So it feels like you’re sentencing this woman to, best-case scenario, a very painful miscarriage, worst-case scenario is much worse than that. And those are the two options.
MCHUGH: Exactly right. And so this is a very common scenario we diagnose inevitable abortion all the time. For this particular patient, she was able to come to Indiana, she saw me in one of my clinics, and we were able to provide that pregnancy termination for her, save her uterus and potentially save her life. But in her home, state physicians did not feel that they were legally able to do that. So they sent her away.
START HERE: Wow, I see and then they come to you because right now it’s legal where you are. But on September 15th, I believe, this new law goes into effect in Indiana. It outlaws virtually all abortions that are not the result of rape or incest or that endanger the life of the mother. Even in those circumstances, though, there are timelines to deal with. And I found this interesting, there are also timelines for fetal abnormalities, right, what happens in those situations?
MCHUGH: Yeah, great question. That part of the new law echoes our previous laws, where we had the ability to terminate a pregnancy up to 22 weeks. However, what’s different is under the new law, if the government doesn’t agree with the medical opinion that this was a lethal anomaly, suddenly instead of it just you know, quote unquote being a medical decision that is controversial, now it’s a felony. So this becomes much more complicated to navigate from a medical perspective. You know, it’s already very complicated and very emotional to tell a patient with a desired pregnancy that the baby they’re carrying is not going to live, that they are carrying a baby with profound anomalies that is not able to live outside. That is a devastating day for everyone involved.
And now we are also faced with telling patients that offering them their options which include abortion, which is a compassionate way to treat this pregnancy and this fetal anomaly, and yet if the government does not agree with our medical diagnosis or medical plan of care, treatment plan, then we have the threat of a felony charge which carries six years in jail.
START HERE: So if the stakes are that high for someone like you all of a sudden, what are you going to do starting September 15th?
MCHUGH: After this ban goes into effect, I will no longer be able to provide abortion care in Indiana. This is an integral part of my practice and reason for going into obstetrics and gynecology and so I will move that part of my practice out of state.
START HERE: Oh, you’re gonna have to like move your practice because of this?
MCHUGH: Yeah, the closest state to me is Illinois, so I will work to find a place in Illinois where I can work. The rest of my career will also adjust, to accommodate for the travel and so forth.
START HERE: It’s the moment that your state becomes one of the states that you have been helping up until now.
MCHUGH: Exactly right.
START HERE: Dr. Katie McHugh in Indiana, for now, thank you so much.
(LOS ANGELES) — After closing arguments concluded, the jury began deliberations Wednesday in Vanessa Bryant’s invasion of privacy trial over photos taken at the scene of the 2020 helicopter crash that killed her husband, basketball star Kobe Bryant, and their 13-year-old daughter, Gianna.
Bryant and Orange County financial adviser Chris Chester, whose wife and daughter were also killed in the crash, are suing Los Angeles County for negligence and violation of privacy, alleging that first responders took graphic photos of human remains at the scene as “souvenirs” and shared them with others.
Bryant filed the lawsuit several months after the 2020 crash and U.S. District Judge John Walter in July decided to consolidate Bryant’s and Chester’s cases into one trial.
The judge instructed the jury to consider liability and any damages due in the case separately; meaning one or both the Los Angeles Fire Department and the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department can be found liable, and one or both Bryant and Chester can be found to warrant damages.
Jury deliberations officially began at 11:24 a.m. local time. Judge Walter asked attorneys for both sides to remain in the building. If a decision is reached, Walter said he wants to move quickly with the proceedings.
Throughout the trial, the defense maintained that the photos have not surfaced online since the tragedy. Multiple county fire and sheriff’s personnel have also testified that they deleted whatever crash-site pictures they had on their cellphones.
Both Bryant’s and Chester’s lawsuits argue that the photos were shared before being deleted by first responders.
Bryant is claiming she suffered emotional distress and is suing for an undisclosed amount of damages.
Kobe and Gianna Bryant were headed to a basketball game at his Mamba Sports Academy in Thousand Oaks, California, along with others connected to the basketball program on Jan. 26, 2020, when the helicopter they were traveling in crashed north of Los Angeles. All 9 people on board were killed.
