How banning abortion in the early weeks of pregnancy suddenly became mainstream

The people who run America’s abortion clinics agree: There’s no job like it. There are the clients -- so many of them desperate, in need, grateful. There are the abortion opponents -- passionate, relentless, often furious. And hovering over it all are legal challenges, and the awareness that your clinic may be just a judicial ruling away from extinction. That reality became more urgent last week with a leaked, draft opinion from the U.S. Supreme Court suggesting a majority of justices support overturning the 1973 Roe vs Wade decision legalizing abortion. If that happens it could spell the end of abortion in about half the states. The Associated Press talked with three women and one man who run abortion clinics in such states about their work. Some came to the work through personal brushes with abortion; for others it started as a job. For all, it has become a calling. ___ Recommended Monkeypox: British tourist tested for virus Boris … [Read more...] about Running an abortion clinic while waiting for court decision

T he end of Roe v. Wade would be a devastating defeat for abortion-rights advocates and the millions who support a federally guaranteed right to terminate a pregnancy. It might also be the last, best hope for Democrats seeking to mobilize a frustrated, angry electorate and maintain their slim majorities in Congress this fall. Democrats appear to have settled on their message for targeting these voters, judging by the ads that the party and its candidates have already produced in the three weeks since the leak of a draft Supreme Court opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization that would overturn the landmark 1973 ruling in Roe . An initial spot from the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee opens on an image of matches about to be struck, with a narrator warning: “If Senate Republicans win in November, they will light women’s rights on fire.” Ads from Senators Catherine Cortez-Masto of Nevada and Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire, two of the party’s most … [Read more...] about The Abortion-Rights Message That Some Activists Hate

Shortly after the nation’s latest mass shooting, which killed 14 children and a teacher at elementary school in Texas, the California Senate passed a bill Tuesday to allow private citizens to file suit for at least $10,000 — a bounty-hunter provision modeled on a Texas abortion law — against makers or sellers of untraceable "ghost guns" or illegal assault weapons. “We do have some of the toughest gun laws in the country,” Sen. Anthony Portantino, D-La Cañada Flintridge (Los Angeles County), told his colleagues, referring to the slaughter inside an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas. But public enforcement of those laws has not been enough to protect Californians against the “new wave of weapons,” he said, and private lawsuits would create “an incentive to get these dangerous weapons off the street.” Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said the 18-year-old gunman, who was carrying a handgun and possibly a rifle, was also killed. California Gov. Gavin Newsom quickly raised the gun-control … [Read more...] about Just after Texas shooting, California Senate passes Texas-style bill targeting assault weapons, ghost guns

This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate 3 Former President Donald Trump's crusade for vengeance suffered a devastating blow on Tuesday after Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp won his primary despite rejecting Trump's entreaties to overturn his 2020 election defeat in the state. That's a complication for the former president's hopes to return to the White House in 2024. Voters also demonstrated an openness to embracing scandal-plagued candidates — depending on the candidate, and the scandal. Here are some takeaways from Tuesday's primary elections in Georgia, Alabama, Arkansas, Texas and Minnesota: TRUMP'S BIGGEST PRIMARY DEFEAT Trump had hoped to turn Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp into an example of the danger in defying him. Instead, Kemp on Tuesday became an example of how Republican incumbents might not have as much to fear from Trump as the former president would like. Kemp cruised past former U.S. Sen. David Perdue in the … [Read more...] about Takeaways: Trump’s big primary defeat; scandals for the win