(LAPLACE, La.) — After the devastating Hurricane Ida tore across the state last weekend, communities in Louisiana and beyond are rallying to support their friends and neighbors.
In LaPlace, Louisiana, local volunteers Desiree Nye and Hunter Louque helped Darrin Heisser and his dog, Sonny, evacuate from their flooded home.
Help is not only coming from next door, but also from across the country.
Over in Texas, which borders Louisiana, Gallery Furniture posted a sign that says, “Louisiana residents sleep here free.”
The store is collecting donations and has already raised $24,000 for Louisiana residents so far.
Nonprofit organization Operation BBQ Relief traveled to Hammond, Louisiana, to make as many as 50,000 meals a day for those in need.
Co-founder Stan Hays said it’s the small actions that can sometimes have the biggest impact for folks in need.
“Our team’s putting together some hot BBQ meals to serve to the first responders and those in the community affected by Hurricane Ida. Many of those without water, without power, are just trying to get by right now,” Hays said. “And a little bit of comfort food goes a long way.”
(PATERSON, N.J) — Dafani Peralta said she had to drop out of high school when she became pregnant 12 years ago and didn’t have the support of her mom to continue her education.
“I saw that my mom didn’t even care about my education. She was really mad at me because I was pregnant,” Peralta, now 28, told “Good Morning America.” “It was really hard for me because I had my friends there and I wanted a better future for my daughter.”
Peralta, of Paterson, New Jersey, was 15 when she gave birth to her daughter, Viarnneyra.
She and her daughter bounced between family members’ homes, with Peralta struggling to find a job because she lacked day care for her daughter.
“Everything was new that first year, just the responsibility and trying to keep my baby alive,” she said. “I wasn’t really thinking about education that first year but as she got older, I wanted to [go back to school] to help her education at home.”
When Viarnneyra entered pre-K, Peralta decided to work on finishing her high school degree, but by that time, she also had a 1-year-old son with her now-husband.
Peralta started at a school that also had day care for her son, but then faced additional obstacles, including becoming pregnant with her third child.
“I was struggling with the transportation because I’d have to walk my daughter to school and then wait at the bus stop for 45 minutes to an hour in snow and rain to get to school,” she said. “While pregnant, for me, that was too difficult.”
After Peralta gave birth, she said she returned to school but due to lack of child care availability, had to take her infant to a relative’s house while she took her middle child with her to school.
“I had to take my daughter to school, walk with the stroller to the bus stop to go to drop one off and then take another bus and go to school [with the other child],” she said. “It was too much and sometimes I didn’t have money for the bus.”
Peralta tried to return to school again when her children got older, but she said she was beset by more obstacles, including one of her sons being diagnosed with autism.
“There were a lot of situations going on and I had to give up something and I gave up my education to focus on my kids,” said Peralta, who would go on to have six children in total. “I really love my kids and enjoy being with them at home but I really felt that I wanted [an education] to go forward.”
“Every time I’d go to get a job, they always ask for a high school diploma and I didn’t have it,” she said. “And I couldn’t give [my kids] simple things like help them with their math or their homework because I don’t understand. It was really frustrating.”
This summer, with her kids now ages 12, 10, 8, 7, 5 and 4, Peralta decided that she was going to get her high school equivalency diploma, or GED, no matter what it took.
She said she realized now was the time to do it because, due to the coronavirus pandemic, she could take the courses at home, and not have to worry about commuting or finding full-time child care for her kids.
“I was asking God for this opportunity to do it from home, from the computer, and I thought it was an impossible thing to happen, but I asked anyways,” said Peralta. “I thought this is the time and I’m not going to quit this time.”
Peralta said she also felt like she received a sign that now was the time to do it when her sister-in-law volunteered to spend her vacation with the family so that she could watch the kids while Peralta studied and her husband worked.
Over the course of one month this summer, Peralta took online classes through the Spanish High School Equivalency (S-HSE) program at Paterson Adult & Continuing Education (P.A.C.E.) in New Jersey.
“They gave us one month of class that is normally taught in three months, so it was intensive,” Peralta said. “I took it seriously because I thought this was the opportunity of my life. I thought I’m not going to take it for granted. Now that my sister-in-law was there, I had no excuses.”
Peralta’s teachers at P.A.C.E. say they noticed her determination right away.
“The first thing she said was, ‘I am a 28-year-old woman with six children and my goal is to graduate,'” recalled Vilma Carranza, a teacher in the S-HSE program. “I noticed that the more work I gave her, the more effort she put into it. She really put her mind and her heart into what she was doing.”
In July, Peralta was one of nine students out of an original class of 20 to graduate and earn her GED from the New Jersey Department of Education, according to Carranza.
“The program is very rigorous. It’s not a simple, easy class to pass,” said Carranza. “And she was superb.”
Peralta said receiving her high school diploma not only fulfilled a lifelong personal goal for herself, but also helped her fulfill the goal of being an example for her children.
“I want them to see what their minds can do,” she said. “I don’t have to just say to go to school and graduate, I’m doing it.”
The day that Peralta learned she had passed all of her exams, her oldest daughter Viarnneyra, with whom she became pregnant in high school, was the first to celebrate her mom’s accomplishment.
“The day that I told her that I passed all of my tests, she said we had to go to a bakery and celebrate it because she saw all my hard work,” said Peralta. “She said, ‘I’d go to your room and you were studying. It was nighttime and you were still studying. I saw the hard work and now we have to celebrate it.'”
Now that Peralta has her GED, she is looking into taking online college courses and her husband, an electrician, is going to pursue his high school degree, also at P.A.C.E.
“We have struggled so much as a family,” said Peralta, adding that now she and her husband can show their children “what’s possible.” “Now we have opportunity, but it took us a long [time].”
(NEW YORK) — The United States is facing a COVID-19 surge this summer as the more contagious delta variant spreads.
More than 639,000 Americans have died from COVID-19 while over 4.5 million people have died from the disease worldwide, according to real-time data compiled by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University.
Just 61.3% of Americans ages 12 and up are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Here’s how the news is developing Wednesday. All times Eastern:
Sep 01, 6:54 pm
US hospital admissions could surge to 22,000 a day by late September: CDC
On average, approximately 12,200 Americans are being admitted to the hospital each day with COVID-19. The forecast models used by the CDC suggest that by Sept. 27, that number could surge to as high as 22,400 a day.
The lower end of the forecast puts the daily hospital admissions at around 6,400.
There are signs the rate of hospital admission nationwide may be slowing, with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reporting hospital admissions will likely “remain stable or have an uncertain trend over the next 4 weeks.”
Kentucky currently tops the list of states expected to see the most hospital admissions, per capita, in the next two weeks, followed by Florida and Georgia.
-ABC News’ Arielle Mitropoulous
Sep 01, 6:08 pm
Medical, pharmaceutical associations call for ‘immediate’ end of prescribing deworming drug ivermectin for COVID-19
The American Medical Association, American Pharmacists Association and American Society of Health-System Pharmacists are calling for an “immediate end” to prescribing, dispensing or using the deworminig drug ivermectin to treat or prevent COVID-19.
Ivermectin is available in different formulations for both people and animals to treat parasites. It is not approved to treat or prevent COVID-19, nor is there enough evidence to support its use. Though amid a surge in COVID-19 cases in the U.S., internal data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reviewed by ABC News estimates a 19-fold increase of the medicine being distributed during the first week of August, alongside an increase in reported cases of illness related to ivermectin toxicity.
The prescribing and dispensing of ivermectin has increased 24-fold since before the pandemic, according to the medical and pharmaceutical associations, which said in a joint statement they were “alarmed” by an exponential increase in recent months as well.
“[We] are urging physicians, pharmacists, and other prescribers — trusted healthcare professionals in their communities — to warn patients against the use of ivermectin outside of FDA-approved indications and guidance, whether intended for use in humans or animals, as well as purchasing ivermectin from online stores,” the associations said. “Veterinary forms of this medication are highly concentrated for large animals and pose a significant toxicity risk for humans.”
-ABC News’ Sony Salzman
Sep 01, 5:37 pm
Moderna submits data to FDA on vaccine booster
Moderna has submitted initial data to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on its vaccine booster, the pharmaceutical company announced Wednesday.
Its booster candidate would be half the dose (50 micrograms) of the original dosing (two shots of 100 micrograms each).
Federal officials have said they hope to begin administering booster shots for many Americans starting on Sept. 20, with the third shot at least eight months after the second.
The FDA has only authorized booster shots of Pfizer’s and Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccines for people who are immunocompromised. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s independent advisory board also recommended booster shots for those with weakened immune systems.
Pfizer is also seeking authorization for a third dose of its COVID-19 vaccine. The FDA announced Wednesday it will hold a public meeting of its independent advisory committee on Sept. 17 to discuss the application.
-ABC News’ Eric Strauss
Sep 01, 3:18 pm
Schools still safe amid delta if guidelines are followed: CDC
Even with the delta variant, schools are still safe for children if guidelines are followed, CDC Director Rochelle Walensky said Wednesday at a town hall with the National Parent Teacher Association.
For the most part, Walensky said, “there’s more disease happening outside of school than there is happening within a school.”
Walensky, a mother of three, said she understands why parents are anxious.
But she added, “What we do know is when we implement the guidance for safe schools — we implement the masking, the ventilation strategies, the cohorting and the screening strategies — that we can have our kids be safe.”
American Academy of Pediatrics President Dr. Lee Beers said at the town hall that it’s still a very small percentage of children who get severely sick. The U.S. saw 200,000 cases among kids in the last week with about 2,000 of them hospitalized, Beers said.
-ABC News’ Cheyenne Haslett
Sep 01, 12:50 pm
Hospitalizations at highest point in over 7 months
With nearly 104,000 hospitalized, U.S. hospitalizations are now at the highest point in more than seven months, according to federal data.
Alabama’s ICUs remain 100% full while Georgia’s ICUs are over 96% full, federal data show.
Nearly 1,000 COVID-19 deaths are now being reported in the U.S. each day, the highest average in more than five months.
-ABC News’ Arielle Mitropoulos
Sep 01, 11:38 am
Booster shots start in France
Booster shots are beginning in France on Wednesday.
Eligible recipients include people over the age of 65 and people with underlying health conditions. They must be at least six months out from their second Pfizer or Moderna shot.
Those who received the single-dose J&J vaccine are also eligible to receive an mRNA booster if at least four weeks have passed since they were vaccinated.
As of Tuesday, 65.6% of France’s total population was fully vaccinated.
Sep 01, 10:42 am
Pfizer studying new pill in hopes it’ll help with mild COVID symptoms
Pfizer is launching a large clinical study for a new pill that it hopes could prevent worse symptoms for patients with mild COVID-19.
The first participant has now been dosed in this “pivotal Phase 2/3 clinical trial,” Pfizer said.
Drugs like Remdesivir and Dexamethasone can help people recover faster, but those are only reserved for people who are extremely ill and in the hospital.
If proven effective, Pfizer will ask the FDA for authorization.
Sep 01, 9:52 am
Virginia Tech disenrolls 134 students who didn’t meet vaccination policy
Virginia Tech says 134 students have been disenrolled after they didn’t comply with COVID-19 vaccine requirements.
The university’s roughly 37,000 students were required to submit vaccination documentation or receive a medical or religious exemption, Virginia Tech said.
“The university does not know whether any of these [134] students were not planning to return for reasons unrelated to the COVID-19 vaccine requirement,” Virginia Tech said.
Sep 01, 9:19 am
TSA screens lowest number of travelers since May
Just 1,345,064 travelers were screened at U.S. airports on Tuesday, the lowest since May 18 when 1,408,017 were screened, the TSA said.
United CEO Scott Kirby said Monday he thinks holiday travel will return to normal.
Sep 01, 8:52 am
San Diego County declares medical misinformation a public health crisis
San Diego has become the first county in the U.S. to declare that health misinformation is causing a public health crisis in its community. This follows the County Board of Supervisors’ 3-2 vote Tuesday night.
Changes to county strategy to combat the pandemic will include: labeling health misinformation and providing timely health information to counter it; modernizing public health communications; investigating in digital resources and training for health practitioners and health workers; and developing a website to be a central resource for fighting health misinformation.
The new policy was introduced when 96.7% of hospitalizations in San Diego County were residents who were not fully vaccinated.
Aug 31, 8:01 pm
Gene Simmons tests positive for COVID, KISS postpones shows
KISS co-lead singer Gene Simmons tested positive for COVID-19, the band shared on its Twitter page Tuesday evening.
In a statement, the band said the 72-year-old was experiencing “mild symptoms.”
His diagnoses comes less than a week after co-lead singer Paul Stanley, 69, tested positive for COVID-19 as well.
In a statement released on Aug. 26, the band said that, “everyone on the entire tour, both band and crew, are fully vaccinated.”
KISS has postponed four of its “End of the Road” tour shows from Sept. 1 to Sept. 5.
“The band and crew will remain at home and isolate for the next 10 days,” the band said in a statement.
Aug 31, 6:56 pm
2 officials working on COVID-19 vaccine review to leave FDA
Peter Marks, the director of the Food and Drug Administration’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research (CBER), announced the upcoming departure of two top vaccine regulators to his staff in an internal memo, which was obtained by ABC News.
Dr. Marion Gruber, director of the FDA’s Office of Vaccines Research and Review (OVRR) and her deputy, Dr. Phil Krause, are set to leave the agency in October and November respectively, according to the memo.
Krause, who’s been with the agency for over a decade, and Gruber, who has been with the FDA for over 30 years, were instrumental in the review and authorization of the three COVID-19 vaccines, the memo said.
The memo said that Gruber will be “retiring” and gave no other details about Krause’s departure.
ABC News has reached out to both Gruber and Krause for comment.
When reached for comment about their departure, an FDA spokesperson told ABC News the agency is “confident in the expertise and ability of our staff to continue our critical public health work, including evaluating COVID-19 vaccines.”
Their departures come at a critical time for the vaccine review team. After facing pressure to move as fast as possible to get vaccines’ full licensure done, the agency is now weighing booster shots for a wider pool of Americans.
The timing of the booster shot approval has been a bone of contention amongst federal agencies after the Biden administration announced the availability of booster shots would begin ahead of any ruling from the FDA or Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advisory groups.
Aug 31, 4:57 pm
Rev. Jesse Jackson’s wife out of ICU
Jacqueline Jackson, the wife of civil rights leader Rev. Jesse Jackson, is out of the ICU as both Jacksons continue to fight COVID-19, their family said.
“Our father remains at The Shirley Ryan AbilityLab where he is continuing to receive intensive occupational and physical therapy,” their son, Jonathan Jackson, said in a statement Tuesday.
Jesse Jackson, who is 79 and has Parkinson’s disease, was vaccinated, reported ABC Chicago station WLS.
“Our mother remains in the Northwestern Memorial Hospital and has been moved out of the ICU and back into her regular hospital room where she continues to receive oxygen,” the statement said. “Both of our parents are continuing to receive excellent medical care and we thank God for the progress that both seem to be making.”
Aug 31, 4:24 pm
Vaccination rate nearly double than it was in mid-July
The U.S. vaccination rate per day is now nearly double than it was in mid-July, according to the White House.
“Back in mid-July we were averaging 500,000 vaccinations per day. Today, we’re averaging 900,000,” White House COVID response coordinator Jeff Zients told reporters Tuesday. “Last week we got over 6 million shots, the biggest weekly total since July 5.”
The increase in vaccinations comes amid fear about the rapidly spreading delta variant.
The delta variant, which is more transmissible, has also been part of the conversation around booster shots of the mRNA and J&J vaccines. The Biden administration said Americans would need a third shot eight months after their second because of waning immunity.
The Biden administration is standing by its decision to call for vaccine boosters beginning Sept. 20 despite questions about whether there’s enough data and the unusual process of announcing a plan before the FDA has evaluated the data and made a recommendation.
In addition to painting the town, Twenty One Pilots are painting the Billboard charts.
The duo’s current single, “Saturday,” has hit number one on the Alternative Airplay ranking, giving Tyler Joseph and Josh Dun a total of nine leaders on the tally.
Twenty One Pilots now have the sixth-most Alternative Airplay number-ones in the history of the chart, which first began in 1988. Red Hot Chili Peppers have the most, with 13.
“Saturday” appears on the new Twenty One Pilots Scaled and Icy, which was released in May. The record’s lead single, “Shy Away,” also hit number one on Alternative Airplay.
Twenty One Pilots will perform “Saturday” on this year’s MTV Video Music Awards, airing September 12. The video for “Shy Away” is nominated in the Best Alternative category.
“Scream,” which is available now via digital formats, is a stripped-down yet upbeat tune that kicks off the album.
“Many of the songs on this album are about the work and discipline it takes in maintaining a long-term relationship,” Buckingham explains in a press statement. “Some of them are more about the discipline and some of them are more about the perks. ‘Scream’ is about the perks. It felt very celebratory and it was also very, very simple and short. To the point.”
He adds, “It made its case and got the hell out. It just seemed like a good place to start the album, somehow. It’s very upbeat and very optimistic and very positive. It’s a celebration of an aspect of life.”
As previously reported, the upcoming album is Buckingham’s first solo studio effort since 2011’s Seeds We Sow and his seventh overall.
The 10-song collection, which Buckingham wrote, produced and recorded at his home studio in Los Angeles, will be available on CD, as a vinyl LP, and on digital and streaming platforms.
The release of “Scream” coincides with the launch of Buckingham’s new U.S. tour, kicking off tonight in Milwaukee. This marks the first time that Lindsey will be playing in-person concerts since he underwent emergency heart surgery in February 2019.
In other news, Buckingham contributed acoustic guitar to a song called “Darling” from pop star Halsey‘s recently released album, If I Can’t Have Love, I Want Power.
(SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif.) — A California wildfire is inching closer to a resort town as fire conditions worsen in the region.
The Caldor Fire has now scorched more than 204,390 acres and is just 20% contained as it burns southeast of Lake Tahoe — raging nearer to the popular ski resort town of South Lake Tahoe.
It is now the 15th-largest fire in California history, destroying or damaging at least 772 structures, including nearly 550 homes, according to officials. Nearly 35,000 structures are still threatened.
Overnight, the fire remained “very active” due to poor humidity — down to 5% in some spots — according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. But slow growth allowed firefighters to get more containment over the flames.
Those on the front lines are in an uphill battle now, with 35 to 40 mph wind gusts forecast through Wednesday night. Red flag warnings have been issued in California and Nevada.
Nearly 60,000 residents in Amador, El Dorado, Alpine and Douglas counties in California are under evacuation orders, which also expanded to Nevada on Wednesday as a result of the gusty winds and flames moving east.
The air quality in the Lake Tahoe area is nearly 40 times what the World Health Organization deems unhealthy due to the heavy plumes of smoke emitting from the Caldor Fire, according to IQ Air, a data tool that measures and ranks air quality in cities around the world.
There are currently 20 fires burning in California alone, with more than 1.88 million acres burned and 2,700 structures destroyed in the state.
The Dixie Fire — the second-largest and 14th most destructive fire in California history — is still burning in Lassen County in Northern California after it sparked on July 13. The fire has burned through 844,081acres, an area the size of Rhode Island, and is only 52% contained.
The Monument Fire in Trinity County, California — the 20th-largest in the state — has scorched through 174,706 acres and is 29% contained.
More than 15,000 fire personnel have been assigned to the front lines of the wildfire, while more than 59,000 people in California have been evacuated, according to Cal Fire.
About 6.3 million gallons of fire retardant have been dropped from the air this year — a record set by the McClellan Air Tanker Base set for most fire retardant delivered in a single year, Cal Fire reported.
ABC News’ Max Golembo and Jenna Harrison, Kayna Whitworth and Haley Yamada contributed to this report.
Paul Bersebach/MediaNews Group/Orange County Register via Getty Images
(NASHVILLE, Tenn.) — Two Tennessee school districts have announced temporarily closures due to COVID-19 cases.
Sumner County School District announced Wednesday that students will be taking classes from Sept. 7 to 10 to “help mitigate the community spread of COVID-19 among students and staff.”
The district is using “inclement weather days” for the temporary closure. There won’t be any in-person or online instruction during that time period and school will resume on Sept. 13. Extracurricular activities will go on during the pause.
“We encourage everyone to practice safe, healthy measures during this break to help reduce the spread of COVID-19 within our community,” the district said in a statement.
Of the 2,444 cases reported from Aug. 17 to 30 in Sumner County, 868 were among school-age children between 5 and 18 years old, according to the Tennessee Department of Health.
Marion County School District also announced they will close from Thursday through Sept. 10 for “intensive cleaning and COVID-19 numbers.” All extra curricular activities will also be suspended through Sept. 13.
Marion County Schools has a mandatory mask mandate with a parental opt-out, Dr. Mark Griffith, director of Marion County Schools, said in a video message on Facebook to parents last week.
“Kids are wearing masks and doing what they’re supposed to do, we’re pleased to say that’s been a success so far,” he said.
He cited 116 COVID-19 cases among students across the county last week.
Neither school district has a public COVID-19 dashboard recording how many students and staff have tested positive for the virus.
The two new closures come one week after Wilson County Schools and Rutherford County Schools announced COVID-19 closures as well, according to Nashville ABC affiliate WKRN.
COVID-19 cases among children have skyrocketed since May 2021, with 31,594 cases among 5- to 18-year-olds reported in the past 14 days, according to the Tennessee Department of Health.
Tennessee has seen cases and hospital admissions surge along with a sobering trend across the country. Hospitalizations have hit their highest point in more than seven months with nearly 104,000 patients across the U.S., according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Pediatric COVID-19 admissions have also surged and school mask mandates have become the center of debates, especially as children under the age of 12 are still not eligible for the vaccine.
On average, nearly 340 children are now seeking hospital care for COVID-19 each day, according to the latest government data.
(WASHINGTON) — A new report from the federal watchdog overseeing the trillions in approved coronavirus relief funds says several relief programs potentially disbursed nearly $100 billion in fraudulent relief money.
The Pandemic Response Accountability Committee, established as part of the $2.2 trillion coronavirus relief bill passed in March 2020, is responsible for overseeing a combined $5 trillion in pandemic relief funds authorized by Congress.
Working with inspectors general from several key federal agencies, the committee, in its report published Wednesday afternoon, identified fraud within programs championed by both parties, including those designed to aid small businesses and unemployed individuals.
“This is an unprecedented amount of money,” the report said. “And most of the funds were disbursed quickly. These factors put the money at a higher risk of fraud.”
The federal unemployment insurance program provides up to a $600 weekly in addition to the state unemployment payout. But the report found the program will disburse nearly $87 billion in fraudulent unemployment insurance payments before its expiration this month.
Democrats championed the program, holding it up as a necessary safety net for people whose jobs were wiped out by the pandemic, but Republicans have long challenged it.
Though the program technically expires in September, it has already been rolled back in many Republican-controlled states. Republican leaders said the program incentivizes people to stay home by in some cases paying them more than low-wage jobs.
Businesses were also eligible for several types of loans under the massive coronavirus relief bills passed by Congress.
Potentially ineligible applicants for Economic Injury Disaster Loans, which were given to small businesses that were established before the pandemic and could be used to pay normal business expenses, received $918 million in loan funds, the report says, “reducing the total amount of funds available for legitimate businesses.”
Both unemployment insurance benefits and loans issued to small businesses were plagued by self-certification, which allowed applicants to self-assess eligibility, sometimes without traditional review standards, the report says.
The report also detailed problems with the paycheck protection program, a small business COVID-19 relief measure that Republicans strongly advocated for. That program allowed small businesses to receive federal loans that would be forgiven if at least 60% of the borrowed funds were used to keep employees on the payroll, but the watchdog group found issues with representation and fraud.
Failure to require the checking of applicants against a list of those ineligible to receive federal loans led to 57,500 PPP loans worth $3.6 billion being issued to potentially ineligible recipients, according to the report.
And, despite language in the federal legislation instructing lenders to ensure small business loans were given to women, minorities and veterans, there is “no evidence that small businesses in underserved and vulnerable communities” received the loans.
The small business association, responsible for collecting demographic data on who was getting these new federal loans, did not collect demographic data on the loan applications and did not issue guidance requiring lenders to prioritize applicants from businesses in vulnerable communities, disadvantaging potential borrowers who may not have had existing relationships with larger lenders.
Since June, there’s been an effort to correct that issue through the creation of a new online tool and a revised application process.
Stimulus checks, several rounds of which went out to Americans in certain income brackets, were also not immune to fraud. The watchdog found that nearly 2.2 million checks worth nearly $3.5 billion were issued to deceased individuals. Of that, $72 million was voluntarily returned.
(FORT WORTH, Texas) — As the clock ticked toward midnight, staff at an abortion clinic in Texas rushed to provide service for their patients while they still legally could.
“Honestly, there was no rhythm. There was no rhyme. It was a pure push to get everyone that walked in that door yesterday completed before 11:59 p.m.,” Marva Sadler, Whole Woman’s Health director of clinical services, told ABC News.
Sadler was at the Whole Woman’s Health location in Fort Worth until midnight Tuesday assisting the push to serve patients before the most restrictive abortion law in decades went into effect.
While she said she felt proud to be able to provide care for the patients Tuesday night, when she returned to the office early Wednesday, that feeling “was immediately replaced by the thought that we were going to come in this morning and have to turn so many women away,” Sadler said.
Texas’ Senate Bill 8 went into effect at midnight after the Supreme Court did not respond to providers’ request for an emergency injunction in the midst of a legal challenge to the law. It still remains to be seen how the Supreme Court will react.
The law bans physicians from providing abortions “if the physician detects a fetal heartbeat,” including embryonic cardiac activity, which can be as early as six weeks into a pregnancy. The law prohibits the state from enforcing the ban, instead authorizing private citizens to bring civil suits against anyone who “aids or abets” an abortion.
Whole Woman’s Health and other independent abortion providers, as well as Planned Parenthood clinics, are still providing abortion care in Texas in strict adherence to the new law. However, because the ban is so soon after a person may be able to detect a pregnancy — let alone book an appointment — “the tragedy is that we can only provide abortion for about 10% of the people that we could provide abortion for yesterday,” Amy Hagstrom Miller, founder and CEO of Whole Woman’s Health, said on a press call Wednesday.
Patients seeking abortions had heard about the upcoming law, Sadler said, and so in Fort Worth, “the schedule was full, because patients knew it was their last resort.”
“They made those appointments and were willing to come in and wait with us and to be patient with us, in almost a desperation to be seen,” Sadler said.
Clinic staff hustled to see those patients, completing 67 in-office procedures and upward of 50 follow-up appointments for medication abortions. On a typical day, the office sees more like 15 procedures and 20 medication abortion patients, according to Sadler.
The last procedure was at 11:56 p.m.
The clock wasn’t the only added pressure for clinic staff. Anti-abortion protesters were working until midnight, too, standing outside the clinic shining flashlights on the parking lot as patients entered and exited, Sadler said.
The protesters took extra efforts to slow down work Tuesday, Sadler and Hagstrom Miller claimed, calling both the police and fire department on the clinic.
Usually, the office has clinic escorts to shield patients from protesters as well as a security guard, but with the last-minute rush did not have those resources. Staff stood in place of the security guard into the night, Sadler said.
This is the third time Whole Woman’s Health, which operates four abortion clinics in Texas and was behind a landmark 2016 Supreme Court case that protected the right to abortion, has had to shutter operations due to laws in the last decade. The first was after the law that led to the Supreme Court case was enacted, and the second was last year when the state ordered abortion services to temporarily stop due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“It’s a place I think we find ourselves in here in Texas often,” Sadler said. “And you would think that we would get used to it, but, I don’t know that you can ever get used to people being so mean.”
She said she and the staff felt pressed to action because “they don’t sleep on the other side.”
“I’m tired, there is no doubt about that. I’m not sure how I’m getting my body to move, but I do know this: I do know that even though this is horrible and I don’t have the best answers to give my patients, I am still — my staff, my team, the wonderful abortion care workers in this state are still the best people to help these women navigate the hardest decisions of their lives,” Sadler said.
“And we can’t give up because Texas kind of beats us up, because a woman is still going to get pregnant and not want to be pregnant today,” she said. “So it hurts. It’s hard, it’s heavy, it seems impossible many times, but if not us, then who?”
Her voice choked with emotion, Sadler asked to share this message with patients: “We won’t give up, we have their back, and we’re going to continue to do everything we can to support them in their time of need.”
(NEW YORK) — A woman who was allegedly sexually abused as a child by Jeffrey Epstein is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn an appeals court ruling that, if allowed to stand, would end her years-long challenge to federal prosecutors’ once-secret deal with the deceased sex offender, which in 2008 allowed Epstein to avoid federal charges involving more than 30 underage victims.
“The nation’s highest court should review this ‘national disgrace’ and bring some measure of justice by overturning the decision,” wrote attorneys for Courtney Wild in a petition to the Supreme Court this week. “The importance of this case to crime victims — and to the public — cannot be overstated.”
Wild’s lawyers contend that the case presents a “now-or-never opportunity” for the Supreme Court to decide whether the government’s “covert practices” that concealed the Epstein deal from his victims violated the federal Crime Victims’ Rights Act.
“Courtney’s rights were intentionally violated by our government, and we are now asking our United States Supreme Court to take this important case and finally bring the justice Courtney has been seeking, which will forever forbid the government from working in secret against victims, no matter how wealthy and powerful the criminal might be,” said Brad Edwards, one of Wild’s attorneys.
Wild, 33, sued the U.S. Justice Department in 2008, demanding information from federal prosecutors about their investigation of Epstein, a multimillionaire financier who allegedly sexually abused dozens of underage girls, including Wild, at his waterfront mansion on Florida’s Palm Beach Island.
Wild’s legal action forced the government to admit that the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Miami had already reached a confidential deal with Epstein several months earlier, without informing the alleged victims. Over 12 years of litigation, Wild’s case ultimately exposed details of the secret negotiations between prosecutors and Epstein’s high-priced legal team that led to the controversial agreement.
“Without our case, probably no one would have seen the non-prosecution agreement, the secret agreement,” Edwards said. “Without that action, nobody would have known just how bad [Epstein] and his other co-conspirators were. No one would have ever understood the whole story.”
But the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in April, in a 7-4 decision, that Wild’s case never should have been allowed to proceed. The majority of judges concluded that the Crime Victims’ Rights Act (CVRA), enacted by Congress in 2004, did not permit her to sue the Justice Department over Epstein’s so-called “sweetheart deal” in the absence of an existing criminal prosecution.
Federal prosecutors drafted a 53-page indictment of Epstein in 2007 but never filed it, opting to forgo federal prosecution in exchange for Epstein’s guilty pleas to two prostitution-related charges in Palm Beach County Court. Instead of facing a potential sentence between 14 and 17 years, Epstein served 13 months in the private wing of a county jail, much of that time on work release that allowed him to spend up to 16 hours a day at his West Palm Beach office, before he was released in 2009.
“Because the [federal] government never filed charges against Epstein, there was no pre-existing proceeding in which Ms. Wild could have moved for relief under the CVRA, and the Act does not sanction her stand-alone suit,” U.S. Circuit Judge Kevin Newsom wrote in the court’s majority opinion.
Newsom acknowledged that the court’s decision left Wild and other alleged Epstein victims “largely empty handed” and without any remedy for the U.S. government’s alleged mistreatment of Epstein’s victims. Wild had argued for years that the Epstein deal, which also conferred limited immunity to any alleged co-conspirators, should be declared illegal and torn up.
“We have the profoundest sympathy for Ms. Wild and others like her, who suffered unspeakable horror at Epstein’s hands, only to be left in the dark — and, so it seems, affirmatively misled — by government attorneys,” Newsom wrote in April. “Shameful all the way around. The whole thing makes me sick.”
In arguing for the Supreme Court to step in, Wild’s lawyers contend that the appeals court decision effectively frees the government “to dispense with victims’ rights and orchestrate clandestine deals without affording victims any rights under the CVRA.”
“Unless the decision from the 11th Circuit is overturned, the Justice Department will have a blueprint for keeping all sorts of negotiations secret — to the detriment of victims and the public understanding how cases are being resolved,” said Paul Cassell, another of Wild’s attorneys.
Wild, now a mother of two, was present in a Manhattan courtroom in July of 2019, when Epstein made his first appearance after being charged by federal authorities in New York with conspiracy and child sex trafficking. Epstein died a month later by apparent suicide while being held in New York City’s Metropolitan Correctional Center. But Wild and her lawyers contend that her case against the federal government should not end with Epstein’s death.
“All we have ever wanted is to make sure that there are basic rights for victims like myself,” Wild told ABC News in a statement. “My final hope in this fight is with the United States Supreme Court, who I hope and pray will take my case and right the wrong that was done.”
