Tag: TX State Wire

More women sue Texas, asking court to put emergency block on state’s abortion law

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WASHINGTON (AP) — One woman had to carry her baby, missing much of her skull, for months knowing she’d bury her daughter soon after she was born. Another started mirroring the life-threatening symptoms that her baby was displaying while in the womb. An OB-GYN found herself secretly traveling out of state to abort her wanted pregnancy, marred by the diagnosis of a fatal fetal anomaly.

All of the women were told they could not end their pregnancies in Texas, a state that has enacted some of the nation’s most restrictive abortion laws.

Now, they’re asking a Texas court to put an emergency hold on some abortion restrictions, joining a lawsuit launched earlier this year by five other women who were denied abortions in the state, despite pregnancies they say endangered their health or lives.

More than a dozen Texas women in total have joined the Center for Reproductive Rights’ lawsuit against the state’s law, which prohibits abortions unless a mother’s life is at risk — an exception that is not clearly defined. Texas doctors who perform abortions risk life in prison and fines of up to $100,000, leaving many women with providers who are unwilling to even discuss terminating a pregnancy.

“Our hope is that it will allow physicians at least a little more comfort when it comes to patients in obstetrical emergencies who really need an abortion where it’s going to effect their health, fertility or life going forward,” Molly Duane, the lead attorney on the case, told The Associated Press. “Almost all of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit tell similar stories about their doctors saying, if not for this law, I’d give you an abortion right now.”

The Texas attorney general’s office, which is defending the state in the lawsuit, did not immediately return an email seeking comment Monday.

The lawsuit serves as a nationwide model for abortion rights advocates to challenge strict new abortion laws states that have rolled out since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last year. Sixteen states, including Texas, do not allow abortions when a fatal fetal anomaly is detected while six do not allow exceptions for the mother’s health, according to an analysis by KFF, a health research organization.

Duane said the Center for Reproductive Rights is looking at filing similar lawsuits in other states, noting that they’ve heard from women across the country. Roughly 25 Texas women have contacted the organization about their own experiences since the initial lawsuit was filed in March.

The women who joined the lawsuit describe being elated about finding out they were pregnant before the experience turned catastrophic.

Jessica Bernardo and her husband spent years trying to conceive, even consulting fertility doctors, before finally become pregnant with a daughter, Emma, last July.

Almost immediately, Bernardo was coughing so hard and often she would sometimes throw up. Fourteen weeks into the pregnancy, test results revealed her baby likely had Down Syndrome, so she consulted a specialist who gave her devastating news: Emma’s heart was underdeveloped and she had a rare, deadly disorder called fetal anasarca, which causes fluid to build up in the body.

“He handed me a tissue box,” recalled Bernardo, who lives in Frisco, Texas. “I thought maybe the worst thing he was going to tell us was that she’s going to have Down Syndrome. Instead, he said, ‘I can tell you right away…she wouldn’t make it.’”

The doctor warned her to watch out for high blood pressure and coughing, symptoms of Mirror syndrome, another rare condition where a mother “mirrors” the same problems the fetus is experiencing.

With Bernardo’s blood pressure numbers climbing, her OB-GYN conferred with the hospital’s ethics board to see if she could end the pregnancy but was advised Bernardo wasn’t sick enough. Bernardo spent $7,000 traveling to Seattle for an abortion a week later.

Even if Emma made it through the pregnancy, doctors would have immediately needed to drain excess fluids from her body, only for her to survive a few hours or days, Bernardo said.

“Reading about everything they would do sounded like complete torture to a newborn that would not survive,” she said. “Had I not received an abortion, my life would have very likely been on the line.”

Other women facing similar situations have not had the financial resources to travel outside of the state.

Samantha Casiano, a 29-year-old living in eastern Texas, found out halfway through her pregnancy last year that her daughter, Halo, had a rare diagnosis of anencephaly, where much of the skull and brain is missing. Her doctor told her she would have to continue with the pregnancy because of Texas law, even though her baby would not survive.

With five children, including a goddaughter, at home she quickly realized she could not afford an out-of-state trip for an abortion. The next next few months of her pregnancy were spent trying to raise money for her daughter’s impending funeral, soliciting donations through online websites and launching fundraisers to sell Mexican soup. Halo was born in April, living for only four hours.

“I was so full of heartbreak and sadness, all at the same time,” Casiano said.

Women in the lawsuit say they could not openly discuss abortion or labor induction with their doctors, instead asking their doctors discreetly if they should travel outside of the state.

Dr. Austin Dennard, an OB-GYN in Dallas, never talked about her own abortion with her doctors after they discovered anencephaly on the baby’s ultrasound during her third pregnancy last year. She worried her out-of-state trip to end the pregnancy could jeopardize her medical license or invite harassment against her and her husband, also an OB-GYN. Dennard was inspired to go public with her case when one of her own patients joined the original lawsuit filed in March after traveling to Colorado to abort a twin fetus diagnosed with a life-threatening genetic disorder.

“There was an enormous amount of fear that I experienced afterward,” Dennard said. “It’s an additional way of feeling silenced. You feel you have to do it in secret and not tell anyone about it.”

Dennard is expecting another child later this year.

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Associated Press writer Paul Weber in Austin, Texas, contributed to this report.

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May 23, 2023
Americans urged to cancel surgeries in Mexico border city after meningitis cases, 1 death

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BROWNSVILLE, Texas (AP) — State and federal health officials are warning U.S. residents to cancel planned surgeries in a Mexico border city after five people from Texas who got procedures there came back and developed suspected cases of fungal meningitis. One of them died, officials said.

The five people who became ill traveled to Matamoros, across the border from Brownsville, for surgical procedures that included the use of an epidural, an anesthetic injected near the spinal column, the Texas Department of State Health Services said Tuesday. Four remain hospitalized, and one of them later died.

Those who became ill range in age from 30 to 50 years old, the department said.

The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a travel advisory Tuesday for U.S. residents seeking medical care in Matamoros.

Meningitis is the swelling of the protective covering of the brain and spinal cord and should be treated urgently. Symptoms include fever, headache, a stiff neck, nausea, vomiting, confusion and sensitivity to light. Cases of meningitis can be caused by viruses, bacteria, trauma or fungi.

Fungal meningitis, like in the Texas cases, is not transmitted person to person, health officials say. It could be accidentally introduced during a medical or surgical procedure.

U.S. and Mexican authorities are attempting to find the source of the infection, whether the cases are linked and if there are other cases, the Texas health department said.

The CDC urged anyone who had an epidural injection of anesthetic in that region after Jan. 1, 2023, to watch for symptoms of meningitis symptoms and consider consulting a doctor.

Patients in the Texas cases began showing symptoms three days to six weeks after surgery in Matamoros.

People leaving the U.S. for prescription drugs, dental procedures, surgeries and other medical treatment — also known as medical tourism — is common, experts say. Besides Mexico, other common destinations include Canada, India and Thailand.

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May 17, 2023
Here are the restrictions on transgender people that are moving forward in US statehouses

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Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has highlighted efforts by Republican governors and statehouses across the country to embrace proposals limiting the rights of transgender people, signing new restrictions as he moves closer to a presidential bid.

The restrictions are spreading quickly despite criticism from medical groups and advocates who say they are further marginalizing transgender youth and threatening their health.

Here’s what’s happening:

FLORIDA’S RESTRICTIONS

DeSantis on Wednesday signed bills that ban gender-affirming care for minors, restrict pronoun use in schools and force people to use the bathroom corresponding with their sex assigned at birth in some cases.

DeSantis also signed new restrictions on drag shows that would allow the state to revoke the food and beverage licenses of businesses that admit children to adult performances. The DeSantis administration has moved to pull the liquor licenses of businesses that held drag shows, alleging children were present during lewd displays.

The rules on gender-affirming care also ban the use of state money for the care and place new restrictions on adults seeking treatment. They take effect immediately, along with the drag show restrictions. The bathroom and pronoun restrictions take effect July 1.

DeSantis has advocated for such restrictions, and championed a Florida law that restricts the teaching of sexual orientation and gender identity in public schools. Florida has expanded that prohibition, which critics have dubbed the “Don’t Say Gay” law, to all grades.

WHERE BANS STAND NATIONALLY

Hundreds of bills have been proposed this year restricting the rights of transgender people, and LGBTQ+ advocates say they’ve seen a record number of such measures in statehouses.

At least 17 states have enacted laws restricting or banning gender-affirming care for minors: Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Mississippi, Montana, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Utah, South Dakota and West Virginia. Federal judges have blocked enforcement of laws in Alabama and Arkansas, and several other states are considering bills to restrict or ban care. Proposed bans are also pending before Texas and Missouri’s governors.

Oklahoma on Thursday agreed to not enforce its ban while opponents of the law seek a preliminary injunction against it in federal court.

These bans have spread quickly, with only three states enacting such laws before this year.

Before DeSantis signed the latest ban, Florida was one of two states that had restricted the care via regulations or administrative action. Texas’ governor has ordered child welfare officials to investigate reports of children receiving such care as child abuse, though a judge has blocked those investigations.

Three transgender youth and their parents who are suing to block Florida’s earlier ban on the care for minors expanded their challenge on Wednesday to include the prohibition DeSantis signed into law.

Every major medical organization, including the American Medical Association, has opposed the bans and supported the medical care for youth when administered appropriately. Lawsuits have been filed in several states where bans have been enacted this year.

STATES POISED TO ACT

A proposed ban on gender-affirming care for minors is awaiting action before Republican Gov. Mike Parson in Missouri. The state’s Republican attorney general, Andrew Bailey, this week withdrew a rule he had proposed that would have gone further by also restricting access to the care for adults.

Bailey cited the bill pending before Parson as a reason for eliminating the rule, which had been blocked by a state judge.

Nebraska Republicans on Tuesday folded a 12-week abortion ban into a bill that would ban gender-affirming care for minors, potentially clearing the way for a final vote on the combined measure as early as this week.

A proposal that failed in New Hampshire’s House on Thursday would have required school officials to disclose to inquiring parents that their child is using a different name or being referred to as being a different gender. Opponents said the bill would have exposed LGBTQ+ students to the risk of abuse at home.

Not all states are adopting restrictions, and some Democratic-led states are enacting measures aimed at protecting the rights of LGBTQ+ youth.

Michigan Democrats plan to introduce legislation Thursday that would ban conversion therapy for minors, a discredited practice of trying to “convert” people to heterosexuality.

The legislation is expected to move quickly with Democrats in control of all levels of state government. Democratic state Rep. Jason Hoskins, a sponsor of the bill, told The Associated Press that he hopes the legislation passes by the end of June, which is Pride Month.

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Associated Press writers Brendan Farrington in Tallahassee, Florida; Holly Ramer in Concord, New Hampshire; Margery Beck in Lincoln, Nebraska; Margaret Stafford in Kansas City, Missouri; and Joey Cappelletti in Lansing, Michigan, contributed to this report.

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May 17, 2023
Abortion pill case moves to appeals court, on track for Supreme Court

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NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Lawyers seeking to preserve pregnant women’s access to a drug used in the most common method of abortion got pushback Wednesday from appellate judges with a history of supporting abortion restrictions.

A three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals heard arguments over whether the Food and Drug Administration approval of mifepristone should be revoked more than two decades after it was granted. The case is likely to wind up at the Supreme Court, which already intervened to keep the drug available while the legal fight winds through the courts. The high court’s decision came after a Texas-based judge revoked the drug’s approval.

Biden administration attorney Sarah Harrington opened by calling U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk’s April 7 ruling an “unprecedented and unjustified attack on the FDA’s scientific expertise.”

“I hate to cut you off so early, but you said, `unprecendented’,” Judge James Ho said, referring to an unrelated case that was argued Tuesday. “We had a challenge to the FDA just yesterday.”

“Yes, but I don’t think there’s ever been a court that has vacated the FDA’s determination that a drug is safe to be on the market. … It’s not a court’s role to come in and second-guess that expertise,” Harrington told Ho, who was appointed to the court by former President Donald Trump.

There is no precedent for a U.S. court overturning the approval of a drug that the FDA has deemed safe and effective. While new drug safety issues often emerge after FDA approval, the agency is required to monitor medicines on the market, evaluate emerging issues and take action to protect U.S. patients. Congress delegated that responsibility to the FDA — not the courts— more than a century ago.

Arguments Wednesday went on for two hours, with Harrington and Jessica Ellsworth, an attorney for Danco Laboratories, telling the panel that the doctors and groups who brought the lawsuit did not have a right to sue because they failed to prove they have been or would be harmed by the approval of mifepristone. Their claims that they would be forced to treat people who suffer complications from mifepristone — perhaps even completing abortions when the drug fails — are “speculative,” Harrington said.

All three judges seemed skeptical of that argument.

“It just strikes me that what the FDA has done in making this more available … is you’ve made it much more likely that patients are going to go to emergency care or a medical clinic where one of these doctors is a member,” said Judge Cory Wilson, another Trump appointee.

Harrington disputed that, saying mifepristone is extremely safe, rarely results in complications, and that doctors could cite their conscience and refuse to participate in procedures.

But Erin Hawley, an attorney arguing for the anti-mifepristone plaintiffs, insisted that doctors opposed to abortion can be forced to violate their consciences if they are called upon to remove fetuses from the wombs of women who have had an incomplete medical abortion.

“They allege that they feel complicit in an elective abortion by being forced to complete that procedure,” she said in answer to questions from Judge Jennifer Walker Elrod, an appointee of President George W. Bush.

The case comes to the appeals court almost a year after the Supreme Court overturned the Roe v. Wade ruling that had established abortion rights. Fourteen states have since banned abortion at all stages of pregnancy and other states have adopted, or are debating, major restrictions.

Ho twice referred an “FDA can do no wrong” theme in the pro-mifepristone arguments.

“We are allowed to look at the FDA just like we’re allowed to look at any agency. That’s the role of the courts,” Ho told Ellsworth, who went on to say that the FDA has approved drugs later found to have safety problems.

The third judge hearing the case was Jennifer Walker Elrod, a George W. Bush nominee.

Abortion opponents sued in November in federal court in Amarillo, Texas, where Kacsmaryk, a Trump nominee, presides. An appellate panel voted 2-1 to narrow, but not completely block, Kacsmaryk’s ruling.

The panel’s April 13 decision said the abortion opponents appeared to be barred by time limits from challenging the initial 2000 approval. But the panel said adjustments made in later years — among them allowing the drug to be sent via mail and administered without a physician present — could still be revoked.

Wednesday’s hearing also dealt with the time limit issue, and whether the FDA’s later-year changes reset the clock and made full approval ripe for review.

“Is every time the FDA going to relax some prior restriction, requirement or safeguard based on a history of performance, does that mean we’re here on a reopening issue? I mean, how do you draw that line?” Wilson asked Hawley.

“Absolutely not, your honor,” she replied.

Other mifepristone rules that have changed since the drug’s initial approval include extending the time it can be used from seven to 10 weeks of pregnancy, and reducing the dosage needed to safely end a pregnancy.

Mifepristone is one of two pills used in medication abortions, along with misoprostol. Health care providers have said they could switch to misoprostol if mifepristone is no longer available or is too hard to obtain. Misoprostol is somewhat less effective in ending pregnancies.

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Associated Press reporters Jessica Gresko and Matthew Perrone contributed to this report from Washington.

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May 17, 2023
YouTube’s recommendations send violent and graphic gun videos to 9-year-olds, study finds

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WASHINGTON (AP) — When researchers at a nonprofit that studies social media wanted to understand the connection between YouTube videos and gun violence, they set up accounts on the platform that mimicked the behavior of typical boys living in the U.S.

They simulated two nine-year-olds who both liked video games. The accounts were identical, except that one clicked on the videos recommended by YouTube, and the other ignored the platform’s suggestions.

The account that clicked on YouTube’s suggestions was soon flooded with graphic videos about school shootings, tactical gun training videos and how-to instructions on making firearms fully automatic. One video featured an elementary school-age girl wielding a handgun; another showed a shooter using a .50 caliber gun to fire on a dummy head filled with lifelike blood and brains. Many of the videos violate YouTube’s own policies against violent or gory content.

The findings show that despite YouTube’s rules and content moderation efforts, the platform is failing to stop the spread of frightening videos that could traumatize vulnerable children — or send them down dark roads of extremism and violence.

“Video games are one of the most popular activities for kids. You can play a game like ”Call of Duty” without ending up at a gun shop — but YouTube is taking them there,” said Katie Paul, director of the Tech Transparency Project, the research group that published its findings about YouTube on Tuesday. “It’s not the video games, it’s not the kids. It’s the algorithms.”

The accounts that followed YouTube’s suggested videos received 382 different firearms-related videos in a single month, or about 12 per day. The accounts that ignored YouTube’s recommendations still received some gun-related videos, but only 34 in total.

The researchers also created accounts mimicking 14-year-old boys; those accounts also received similar levels of gun- and violence-related content.

One of the videos recommended for the accounts was titled “How a Switch Works on a Glock (Educational Purposes Only).” YouTube later removed the video after determining it violated its rules; an almost identical video popped up two weeks later with a slightly altered name; that video remains available.

A spokeswoman for YouTube defended the platform’s protections for children and noted that it requires users under 17 to get their parent’s permission before using their site; accounts for users younger than 13 are linked to the parental account. “We offer a number of options for younger viewers,” the company wrote in emailed statement. ”… Which are designed to create a safer experience for tweens and teens.”

Along with TikTok, the video sharing platform is one of the most popular sites for children and teens. Both sites have been criticized in the past for hosting, and in some cases promoting, videos that encourage gun violence, eating disorders and self-harm. Critics of social media have also pointed to the links between social media, radicalization and real-world violence.

The perpetrators behind many recent mass shootings have used social media and video streaming platforms to glorify violence or even livestream their attacks. In posts on YouTube, the shooter behind the attack on a 2018 attack on a school in Parkland, Fla., that killed 17 wrote “I wanna kill people,” “I’m going to be a professional school shooter” and “I have no problem shooting a girl in the chest.”

The neo-Nazi gunman who killed eight people earlier this month at a Dallas-area shopping center also had a YouTube account that included videos about assembling rifles, the serial killed Jeffrey Dahmer and a clip from a school shooting scene in a television show.

In some cases, YouTube has already removed some of the videos identified by researchers at the Tech Transparency Project, but in other instances the content remains available. Many big tech companies rely on automated systems to flag and remove content that violates their rules, but Paul said the findings from the Project’s report show that greater investments in content moderation are needed.

In the absence of federal regulation, social media companies must do more to enforce their own rules, said Justin Wagner, director of investigations at Everytown for Gun Safety, a leading gun control advocacy organization. Wagner’s group also said the Tech Transparency Project’s report shows the need for tighter age restrictions on firearms-related content.

“Children who aren’t old enough to buy a gun shouldn’t be able to turn to YouTube to learn how to build a firearm, modify it to make it deadlier, or commit atrocities,” Wagner said in response to the Tech Transparency Project’s report.

Similar concerns have been raised about TikTok after earlier reports showed the platform was recommending harmful content to teens.

TikTok has defended its site and its policies, which prohibit users younger than 13. Its rules also prohibit videos that encourage harmful behavior; users who search for content about topics including eating disorders automatically receive a prompt offering mental health resources.

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May 16, 2023