Samuel Chamberlain
A federal judge in Washington state Thursday blocked nationwide enforcement of rules enacted by the Trump administration that could strip federal funding from health care providers who refer patients to have an abortion.
The ruling by U.S. District Judge Stanley Bastian in Yakima federal court came two days after a federal judge in Portland, Ore., indicated he would block at least some of the rule changes, which were due to take effect May 3.
The suit challenging the changes was brought against the Department of Health and Human Services by Washington state Attorney General Bob Ferguson and abortion rights groups including Planned Parenthood. Opponents of the rule changes described them as a transparent attack on Planned Parenthood and said they would curb access to care such as contraception and breast and cervical cancer screening for millions of low-income people.
“Today’s ruling ensures that clinics across the nation can remain open and continue to provide quality, unbiased healthcare to women,” Ferguson said in a statement. “Trump’s ‘gag rule’ would have jeopardized healthcare access to women across the country. Title X clinics, such as Planned Parenthood, provide essential services – now they can keep serving women while we continue to fight to keep the federal government out of the exam room.”
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The planned changes to the federal Title X family planning program, which was created in 1970 and serves 4 million patients, would prohibit clinics that receive federal money from sharing office space with abortion providers as well as banning abortion referrals by taxpayer-funded clinics. Federal laws prohibit the use of taxpayer funds to pay for abortions except in cases of rape, incest, or to save the life of the woman. Religious conservatives and abortion opponents have long complained that Title X has been used to subsidize abortion providers indirectly.
“This Administration has made clear that we will protect life at all stages, and this rule is another important step,” White House Deputy Press Secretary Judd Deere said in response to the ruling.
The Washington state lawsuit said the changes would affect more than 90,000 Title X patients in the state and would force 90 percent of the medical professionals providing abortion and other family planning services to either find new locations, undergo expensive remodels or shut down.
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“All over the country, there are Title X providers looking at their patient schedules and wondering what they were going to do,” said Clare Coleman, president of the National Family Planning & Reproductive Health Association, which sued. “Now we know that everyone can continue to do their care as they have been doing for the past 50 years.”
The lawsuit also claimed that the rule changes violated provisions of ObamaCare, which protects providers and patients from government interference in the health care relationship, and a federal law that requires doctors to provide information about abortion and prenatal care to patients in an unbiased manner. Ferguson also alleged the changes violated the Administrative Procedure Act of 1946 by contradicting Title X regulations without sufficient justification and violated doctors’ rights to free speech and women’s rights to abortions under Roe v. Wade.
Fox News’ Bill Mears, Matt Leach and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Source: Fox News Politics
A Coast Guard lieutenant who investigators said espoused white nationalist views and compiled a hit list of prominent Democratic politicians and media personalities was granted pre-trial release by a federal magistrate Thursday.
Christopher Hasson, 50, had been held since his Feb. 15 arrest on drug and gun charges in the parking garage of the Coast Guard’s Washington headquarters. U.S. Magistrate Judge Charles Day noted that Hasson had not been charged with any terrorism-related offenses, but added that the defendant would “have to have a whole lot of supervision.”
It was not immediately clear what conditions Day would impose on Hasson, who has pleaded not guilty to all charges. It also was not immediately clear when Hasson would be released.
In a court filing following Hasson’s arrest, prosecutors described him as a “domestic terrorist” who “intends to murder innocent civilians on a scale rarely seen in this country.” According to the documents, Hasson compiled a spreadsheet of so-called “traitors” that he subdivided into three categories: A,B, and C. So-called “Category A” traitors included Democratic Sens. Chuck Schumer of New York, Tim Kaine of Virginia, Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut (labeled “Sen blumen jew” in the spreadsheet), Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts (labeled “poca warren”), Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, Cory Booker of New Jersey and Kamala Harris of California.
Also listed in “Category A” were House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., MSNBC personalities Joe Scarborough, Chris Hayes and Ari Melber as well as CNN host Don Lemon. Names in the “Category B” list included Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., CNN personalities Chris Cuomo and Van Jones and the Democratic Socialists of America.
At a bond hearing in February, prosecutor Jennifer Sykes said Hasson also would log on to his government computer during work and spend hours searching for information on such people as the Unabomber, the Virginia Tech gunman and anti-abortion bomber Eric Rudolph. Hasson also allegedly Googled topics including “most liberal senators,” “best place in dc to see congress people,” and “civil war if trump impeached.”
Investigators removed this cache of guns and ammunition from Hasson’s Maryland apartment. (U.S. District Court via AP)
Prosecutors’ motion for pre-trial detention also included extracts from draft emails in which Hasson wrote he was “dreaming of a way to kill almost every last person on the earth.” In a separate draft letter to a neo-Nazi leader, prosecutors said Hasson “identified himself as a White Nationalist for over 30 years and advocated for ‘focused violence’ in order to establish a white homeland.”
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Following the February bail hearing, Day agreed to keep Hasson held in custody but said he was willing to revisit his decision if prosecutors didn’t bring more serious charges within two weeks. Hasson’s attorney, Liz Oyer, wrote in a court filing last week that prosecutors recently disclosed they didn’t expect to seek any additional charges.
Investigators found 15 guns, including seven rifles, and over 1,000 rounds of ammunition at Hasson’s basement apartment in Silver Spring, Md., prosecutors said. Hasson’s Feb. 27 indictment also accused him of illegal possession of tramadol, an opioid painkiller.
Hasson faces up to 31 years in prison if convicted on all charges. No trial date has been set.
Fox News’ Bill Mears and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Source: Fox News National
A Coast Guard lieutenant who investigators said espoused white nationalist views and compiled a hit list of prominent Democratic politicians and media personalities cannot be held in custody before his trial on drug and gun charges, a federal magistrate ruled Thursday.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Charles Day ordered a follow-up detention hearing at which Christopher Hasson’s defense team will be required to propose suitable bail conditions. The judge noted that he had “grave concerns” about Hasson and warned that he would “have to have a whole lot of supervision.” Federal prosecutors have indicated that they will challenge any release conditions imposed by Hasson’s defense team in an effort to keep him in custody pending trial.
Hasson, 50, was arrested Feb. 15 in the parking garage of the Coast Guard’s Washington headquarters. He has pleaded not guilty to charges of unlawful possession of silencers, possession of firearms by a drug addict and unlawful user, and for possession of the opioid painkiller tramadol.
Following a bail hearing days after Hasson’s arrest, Day agreed to keep the defendant held in custody but said he was willing to revisit his decision if prosecutors didn’t bring more serious charges within two weeks. Hasson’s attorney, Liz Oyer, wrote in a court filing last week that prosecutors recently disclosed they didn’t expect to seek any additional charges.
Prosecutors described Hasson in court documents as a “domestic terrorist” who “intends to murder innocent civilians on a scale rarely seen in this country.” According to a court filing, Hasson compiled a spreadsheet of so-called “traitors” that he subdivided into three categories: A,B, and C. So-called “Category A” traitors included Democratic Sens. Chuck Schumer of New York, Tim Kaine of Virginia, Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut (labeled “Sen blumen jew” in the spreadsheet), Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts (labeled “poca warren”), Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, Cory Booker of New Jersey and Kamala Harris of California.
Also listed in “Category A” were House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., MSNBC personalities Joe Scarborough, Chris Hayes and Ari Melber as well as CNN host Don Lemon. Names in the “Category B” list included Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., CNN personalities Chris Cuomo and Van Jones and the Democratic Socialists of America.
At a bond hearing in February, prosecutor Jennifer Sykes said Hasson also would log on to his government computer during work and spend hours searching for information on such people as the Unabomber, the Virginia Tech gunman and anti-abortion bomber Eric Rudolph. Hasson also allegedly Googled topics including “most liberal senators,” “best place in dc to see congress people,” and “civil war if trump impeached.”
Investigators removed this cache of guns and ammunition from Hasson’s Maryland apartment. (U.S. District Court via AP)
Prosecutors’ motion for pre-trial detention also included extracts from draft emails in which Hasson wrote he was “dreaming of a way to kill almost every last person on the earth.” In a separate draft letter to a neo-Nazi leader, prosecutors said Hasson “identified himself as a White Nationalist for over 30 years and advocated for ‘focused violence’ in order to establish a white homeland.”
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Investigators also found and removed 15 guns, including seven rifles, and over 1,000 rounds of ammunition from Hasson’s basement apartment in Silver Spring, Md., prosecutors said.
Hasson faces up to 31 years in prison if convicted on all charges. No trial date has been set.
Fox News’ Bill Mears and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Source: Fox News National
A wealthy Maryland stock trader was found guilty of second-degree murder and involuntary manslaughter Wednesday in connection with a deadly fire in a network of tunnels he planned to use as an underground nuclear bunker.
Jurors deliberated for approximately 12 hours before convicting 27-year-old Daniel Beckwitt in the September 2017 death of Askia Khafra, 21. Beckwitt faces up to 30 years in prison at a sentencing set for June 17.
Montgomery County prosecutor Marybeth Ayres said Beckwitt was responsible for creating extreme hoarding conditions that trapped Khafra in the tunnels under Beckwitt’s Bethesda home when a fire broke out in the basement. They said Beckwitt had sacrificed safety for secrecy and placed Khafra’s life in danger, with mounds of trash blocking potential escape routes.
Daniel Beckwitt was arrested in May 2018. (Montgomery County Police Department)
“This was a survivable fire, and we know that because the defendant survived,” Ayres said Tuesday during closing arguments.
Defense attorney Robert Bonsib told jurors the fire was an accident, not a crime, and claimed that Khafra had worked in Beckwitt’s house and tunnels for months and knew his way around the property. Beckwitt did not testify at his trial, which lasted nearly two weeks.
Fox 5 DC reported that Beckwitt gasped and began weeping when the verdict was read. He shook his head as court officers handcuffed him. Judge Margaret Schweitzer agreed to revoke Beckwitt’s $100,000 bond.
Bonsib said afterward that he would appeal, adding that he believed the jurors may have been unfairly influenced by photos of the conditions at Beckwitt’s home.
Askia Khafra’s father, Dia, holds a photo of his son in this Sept. 5, 2018 photo. (Associated Press)
“The problem is the pictures of the hoarding condition did not reveal what the path out of the home looked like before the fire,” Bonsib said. “I just told him there’s a lot more fight in this case.”
Khafra met Beckwitt online and Beckwitt had invested money in a company Khafra was trying to launch as he helped Beckwitt dig the tunnels. Khafra worked in the tunnels for days at a time, eating and sleeping in there. They had lights, an air circulation system and a heater.
A hole in the concrete basement floor led to a shaft that dropped down 20 feet into tunnels that branched out roughly 200 feet in length. Investigators concluded the blaze was ignited by a defective electrical outlet in the basement.
Beckwitt went to elaborate lengths to keep the project a secret. Jurors heard that he tried to trick Khafra into thinking they were digging the tunnels in Virginia instead of Maryland by having him don “blackout glasses” before taking him on a long drive. They also were told Beckwitt used internet “spoofing” to make it appear they were digging in Virginia.
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Bonsib described his client as a “very strange young man” but urged jurors to look past his idiosyncratic personality.
“Being different, living in a different circumstance is not a crime,” he said.
Hours before the fire broke out in the basement, Khafra texted Beckwitt to warn him it smelled like smoke in the tunnels. Ayres said Beckwitt didn’t respond for more than six hours before telling Khafra that there had been a “major electrical failure.” Instead of getting Khafra out of the tunnels, Beckwitt told him that he “just switched it all over to another circuit,” according to the prosecutor.
Bonsib said Beckwitt screamed for help from neighbors after the fire broke out and risked his own safety in a failed attempt to rescue his friend from the blaze. Firefighters found Khafra’s naked, charred body in the basement, only a few steps from an exit.
Click for more from Fox5DC.com.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Source: Fox News National
The State Department has said that Iran should release all “innocent U.S. persons” held in that country “immediately” after Iran’s foreign minister claimed Wednesday to have offered a prisoner swap to the Trump administration six months ago.
Javad Zarif told an audience at the Asia Society in New York City that Tehran had not yet received a response from Washington, adding: “If they tell you anything else, they’re lying.”
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In response, a State Department spokesperson noted that the U.S. “repeatedly” had called for a “humanitarian resolution of these cases.”
“The Iranian regime can demonstrate its seriousness regarding consular issues, including Iranians who have been indicted or convicted of criminal violations of US [sic] sanctions laws, by releasing innocent U.S. persons immediately,” the spokesperson said. “We call on Iran to free all unjustly detained and missing U.S. persons, including Xiyue Wang, Robert Levinson, Siamak Namazi, and Nizar Zakka, among others.”
Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif speaks at the Asia Society in New York, Wednesday, April 24, 2019. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
Zarif didn’t specify whom Iran might trade, though he mentioned the case of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a British-Iranian woman detained in Iran for nearly three years. On the other side, he cited U.S. extradition warrants against an Iranian man with a heart condition held in Germany for trying to buy spare parts for civilian airplanes, and against an Iranian woman imprisoned in Australia for three years who was the translator in a purchase of equipment for Iranian broadcasting. He did not name either of them.
As foreign minister, Zarif said, he could involve himself only on humanitarian grounds and where there is a possibility of a prisoner exchange, which he did once with the United States in January 2016.
WIFE OF US SCHOLAR IMPRISONED IN IRAN SPEAKS OUT: ‘HIS ONLY CRIME IS HE’S AMERICAN’
“We believe their charges are phony,” he said of Iranians held in the U.S. “The United States believes the charges against these people in Iran are phony.”
“And I put this offer on the table publicly now: Exchange them,” he said. “Let’s discuss them. Let’s have an exchange. I’m ready to do it, and I have authority to do it.”
Four Americans are known to be held in Iran. Wang, a Chinese-American graduate student, was sentenced to 10 years in prison in July 2017 for allegedly “infiltrating” the country while doing doctoral research on Iran’s Qajar dynasty.
Namazi and his octogenarian father, Baquer, a former representative for the U.N. children’s agency UNICEF who served as governor of Iran’s oil-rich Khuzestan province under the U.S.-backed shah, were detained in 2015 and 2016, respectively, and have been serving 10-year sentences on espionage charges.
Zakka, a U.S. permanent resident from Lebanon who advocated for Internet freedom and has done work for the U.S. government, was detained in 2015 and sentenced to 10 years on espionage-related charges.
Levinson, a former FBI agent who vanished in 2007 while on an unauthorized CIA mission in Iran, remains missing. Iran has said Levinson is not in the country and it had no further information about him, though his family has held Tehran responsible for his disappearance.
Others held by Iran include Iranian-American art dealer Karan Vafadari and his Iranian wife, Afarin Neyssari, who were arrested in July 2016 and received 27-year and 16-year prison sentences, respectively.
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Last month, former U.S. Navy cook Michael R. White from Imperial Beach, Calif., was sentenced to 10 years in prison in Iran, becoming the first American known to be imprisoned there since Trump took office. Washington-based lawyer Mark Zaid told The Associated Press that White was convicted of insulting Iran’s supreme leader and posting private information online, but information surrounding the case remained vague.
Iranian-American Robin Shahini was released on bail in 2017 after staging a hunger strike while serving an 18-year prison sentence for “collaboration with a hostile government.” Shahini has since returned to America and is now suing Iran in U.S. federal court.
Fox News’ Rich Edson and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Source: Fox News World
A Florida judge ruled Tuesday that video purporting to show New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft paying to receive sex acts from a massage parlor worker should not be made public until after the case either goes to trial or is resolved in some other way.
Circuit Judge Leonard Hanser agreed with Kraft’s attorneys that releasing the video likely would make it impossible to seat a jury to try the 77-year-old on misdemeanor prostitution charges. Kraft pleaded not guilty to the charges but has issued a statement apologizing for his conduct.
Several media organizations have requested the release of a redacted version of the video under Florida’s broad public records laws.
Hanser wrote that under normal circumstances, an older man allegedly paying for sexual services would be “a rather tawdry but fairly unremarkable event.”
“But if that man is the owner of the most successful franchise in, arguably, the most popular professional sport in the United States, an entirely different dynamic arises,” Hanser wrote. He said the video would be shown widely on television and on the Internet and it would be difficult for him to find unbiased jurors.
Kraft was one of 25 men charged with solicitation after police secretly installed cameras at the Orchids of Asia massage parlor in Jupiter, Fla., in what authorities initially said was an investigation into human trafficking. Prosecutors have since said they found no evidence of trafficking at the spa.
In a separate hearing, Circuit Judge Joseph Marx permitted spa owner Hua Zhang and therapist Lei Wang to subpoena celebrity gossip site TheBlast.com and its phone provider in an effort to determine who reached out with an offer to sell the Kraft video to the website last week.
CUSTOMERS FILMED AT SPA IN ROBERT KRAFT CASE SUE FLORIDA LAW ENFORCEMENT
TheBlast reported that it did not buy the video, but that the would-be leaker showed its employees a snippet. One of Kraft’s attorneys, Alex Spiro, testified that the website’s CEO and lawyer described to him what the alleged leaker showed and he believed it matched the video police showed him.
Attorneys for Zhang and Wang argued that the video leak must have come from the Palm Beach County State Attorney’s Office or Jupiter police. Both agencies denied that and Marx said the attorneys had not proven that the leak was real. The judge did order both agencies to hand over a list by Monday of all employees who had access to the video.
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“If this video has really been leaked then we’re going to see it,” Marx said. “It’s a sad state of affairs but there’s nothing I can do right now that will prevent that.” The video has not shown up elsewhere.
In a separate matter, Kraft’s attorneys were seeking to suppress the video on grounds that it was an invasion of privacy and that the search warrant to install the cameras was obtained using untrue statements indicating that investigators had found potential evidence of human trafficking. A hearing on that motion was scheduled for Friday.
Fox News’ Heather Lacy and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Source: Fox News National
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said Tuesday that President Trump’s conduct as described in the Mueller report was “unethical, unscrupulous and beneath the dignity of the office he holds,” but added that she was “not there yet” in supporting the initiation of impeachment proceedings.
In an interview at the Time 100 summit in New York City, Pelosi called impeachment “one of the most divisive paths that we could go down in our country” before adding that “if the path of fact-finding takes us there, we have no choice. But we’re not there yet.”
Pelosi made her remarks one day after telling members of her caucus on a conference call that there were no immediate plans to move forward with impeachment, saying: “We don’t have to go to articles of impeachment to obtain the facts, the presentation of facts.” On Tuesday, Pelosi said that 177 House Democrats “were on the call for 87 minutes, 70 minutes at least of that was listening to the comments of 20 members who called in …”
DEM LEADERS REJECT IMMEDIATE IMPEACHMENT PROCEEDINGS IN URGENT CONFERENCE CALL
“There are many ways to hold the president of the United States accountable,” Pelosi added. ” …This is about being totally free from passion, from prejudice, from politics It’s about the presentation of the facts, and when we have the facts, we’ll have a better idea about how we go forward.”
At least three Democratic presidential candidates — Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Kamala Harris of California, as well as former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Julian Castro — have called on Congress to launch impeachment proceedings. Their demands have been backed by two prominent freshman Democrats, Reps. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York.
On Tuesday, Pelosi played down reports of divisions among Democrats over the impeachment issue, saying: “There are some people who are more eager for impeachment, many more eager to just follow the investigation … I don’t think it’s a growing number [who support impeachment.]”
HOUSE JUDICIARY CHAIRMAN SUBPOENAS EX-WHITE HOUSE COUNSEL DON MCGAHN
Shortly before the House Democratic conference call began, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., subpoenaed former White House counsel Don McGahn to testify next month. Nadler also issued a subpoena last week for the full, unredacted version of the Mueller report. House Democrats have refused invitations by Attorney General William Barr to come to its headquarters and read a less-redacted version of the report.
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On Tuesday, Pelosi accused the White House of “stonewalling” after lawyers for Trump sued to block a subpoena issued by the House Oversight Committee seeking the president’s financial records.
“This is a moment in our history,” the speaker said. “As I say, it’s not about politics. It’s about patriotism. It’s an existential threat, this administration, to our democracy in terms of our Constitution, Article I, the legislative branch [as] spelled out in the Constitution, the power of oversight over other branches of government, [and] the right to know.”
Fox News’ Mike Emanuel contributed to this report.
Source: Fox News Politics
The top Republican on the House Judiciary Committee told Fox News on Monday night that Democrats attacking Attorney General William Barr for his handling of the Mueller report are “going to try and take down the attorney general so that nobody will believe him.”
“The Democrats don’t seem to like an attorney general who knows how to do his job,” Rep. Doug Collins, R-Ga., told “The Story with Martha MacCallum.” “And I think what he has done is his job … He’s credible, he’s done what he said and the Democrats are still desperately searching for a reason to paint and smear this president.”
Collins spoke to Fox News hours after reading a less-redacted version of the Mueller report at the Justice Department, making him the only known lawmaker to accept Barr’s offer to view the more detailed version of the report in private.
“There’s nothing, as I said after I read the less-redacted report, that changed the conclusions, changed nothing about what Bob Mueller … found out,” Collins told Ed Henry. “Not Bill Barr. Bob Mueller did these investigations. He was the one that came up with the reports. He was the one that said no charges on obstruction. He was the one that said definitively no collusion by anyone or Americans in working to do this.”
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“Maybe they [Democrats] were more used to [Eric] Holder and [Loretta] Lynch, who sort of obfuscated, hid behind executive privilege and did stuff to tear away from the fabric of the American people instead of Attorney General Bill Barr, who’s actually done his job,” Collins elaborated, referring to former attorneys general under President Obama.
Barr is scheduled to testify before the House and Senate Judiciary Committees at the beginning of next month.
Fox News’ Ed Henry contributed to this report.
Source: Fox News Politics
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., on Monday subpoenaed former White House counsel Don McGahn to testify publicly next month following last week’s release of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report on the Russia investigation.
Nadler described McGahn, who stepped down as White House counsel in October 2018, as “a critical witness to many of the alleged instances of obstruction of justice and other misconduct described in the Special Counsel’s report.”
“The Special Counsel’s report, even in redacted form, outlines substantial evidence that President Trump engaged in obstruction and other abuses,” Nadler said. “It now falls to Congress to determine for itself the full scope of the misconduct and to decide what steps to take in the exercise of our duties of oversight, legislation and constitutional accountability.”
Nadler added that he has requested McGhan to appear before the committee on May 21 and has set a May 7 deadline for him to provide documents related to the Mueller investigation.
“His [McGahn’s] testimony will help shed further light on the President’s attacks on the rule of law, and his attempts to cover up those actions by lying to the American people and requesting others do the same,” Nadler said.
The committee’s ranking member, Rep. Doug Collins, R-Ga., slammed the chairman’s move. “For the second time in four days, the chairman has issued a subpoena prematurely and contrary to his pledge not ‘to issue a subpoena every time we have a disagreement with the administration.’ Don McGahn sat for more than 30 hours of interviews with the special counsel’s investigation, and the chairman has answered that with a stunning 36-item subpoena. Instead of looking at material that Attorney General [William] Barr has already made available, Democrats prefer to demand additional materials they know are subject to constitutional and common-law privileges and cannot be produced.”
Fox News’ Mike Emanuel contributed to this report.
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Kansas’ new governor vetoed a bill Monday that would require doctors and abortion clinics to tell their patients about a disputed treatment meant to stop a medication abortion.
The veto from Gov. Laura Kelly, a Democrat, sets up a showdown with a Republican-dominated legislature that appears to have the two-thirds majorities needed in both chambers to override the veto. Legislators are scheduled to return from a weeks-long break May 1.
The bill would require abortion clinics to display a sign notifying women that they could stop a medication abortion by taking the hormone progesterone — even if they have already taken Mifepristone, the first of two drugs used in the procedure — and doctors would have to tell a patient in writing that a medication abortion could be reversed. A clinic that failed to post a sign could be fined $10,000, and a doctor who failed to notify a patient could be charged with a misdemeanor for a first offense and a felony for a second.
Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly, a Democrat, vetoed a bill related to abortion, setting up a showdown with state Republicans. (AP Photo/John Hanna, File)
Medication abortions using Mifepristone, also known as RU-486, are the most common way of terminating a pregnancy in Kansas, accounting for 61 percent of the total last year, according to statistics from the state health department.
Supporters of so-called “reversal” laws have cited a 2018 study led by Dr. George Delgado, a board member of the American Association of Pro-Life OB/GYNs and a voluntary associate clinical professor at the University of California, San Diego’s medical school. They also noted that progesterone has been used for decades to prevent miscarriages.
Abortion-rights supporters have said the study was flawed and progesterone’s use for reversing a medical abortion hasn’t been tested adequately. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists has disputed the usefulness of the procedure, stating in August 2017 that “[c]laims regarding abortion ‘reversal’ treatment are not based on science and do not meet clinical standards.”
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Seven states with Republican governors have enacted such laws, starting with Arkansas in 2015, and Oklahoma’s GOP-controlled legislature recently approved a measure. Kelly was elected last year and took office in January after the state imposed a raft of new abortion restrictions under her Republican predecessors Sam Brownback and Jeff Colyer.
Other states, including Kentucky, Mississippi and Ohio, have moved to ban abortions when a fetal heartbeat is detected, as early as the sixth week of pregnancy. Kansans for Life, the state’s most influential pro-life group, has long favored an incremental approach and restrictions that would survive court challenges.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Source: Fox News Politics
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