Authorities are expected today to unseal an indictment on New York City Mayor Eric Adams. In a video last night Adams vowed to fight the charges, saying he had been made a “target” in a case “based on lies.”
Abortion advocates say the tragic deaths of two Georgia women prove the state’s abortion restrictions are harmful to women.
Amber Nicole Thurman, 28, and Candi Miller, 41, reportedly died from alleged complications from abortion pills. But ProPublica and the Harris-Walz campaign say they would still be alive if not for Georgia’s ban on abortions after a fetal heartbeat is detected.
Here’s what we know.
Georgia’s Maternal Mortality Review Committee (MMRC) has not publicly verified any details about either woman’s death, asserting the records’ confidentiality. But ProPublica cites the committee’s findings in two reports detailing the circumstances of their deaths.
Thurman, pregnant with twins, reportedly traveled out of state to obtain an abortion. She took one abortion pill in North Carolina and the second at home in Georgia the next day.
Thurman’s symptoms steadily worsened over the next several days. Four days after taking the second pill, she vomited blood, passed out, and was transported to Piedmont Henry Hospital in Stockbridge.
Doctors reportedly waited 20 hours to operate on Thurman. Even after they found that she likely still had tissue in her uterus and diagnosed her with acute severe sepsis, they waited.
Her heart stopped after they finally began abdominal surgery.
ProPublica claims Thurman’s doctors delayed her care out of fear of prosecution under state law. The outlet offers no evidence for that assumption.
In Miller’s case, she also reportedly died from an incomplete chemical abortion. She ordered the pills online, took them, and then suffered for days at home before she was found unresponsive in bed.
Georgia’s MMRC deemed both women’s deaths “preventable,” according to ProPublica, blaming the hospital for Thurman’s death and state law for Miller’s.
Vice President Kamala Harris suggested that the law also caused Thurman’s death.
“In state after state, including [Georgia], these abortion bans have been passed that criminalize health care providers—in a couple of states, prison for life ... for a doctor or nurse who provides health care,” Harris said during a rally with Oprah Winfrey last week.
In Georgia, performing a criminal abortion carries a sentence of one to 10 years in prison. But pregnancies involving medical emergencies can be terminated legally in the state at any stage.
An abortion is also legal if the woman “reasonably believed that an abortion was the only way to prevent a medical emergency.”
That means there was no legal reason for Thurman’s doctors to fear treating her, nor was there reason for either woman to fear seeking emergency care.
But given the political climate, women like Thurman and Miller can be exposed to misleading claims about state restrictions on abortions. If they or their doctors were influenced by fear, such claims may have been the culprit.
A 2009 study conducted in Finland found that chemical abortion had a complication rate four times that of surgical abortion, with as many as one in five women experiencing complications.
—Samantha Flom
REPORT FINDS SECRET SERVICE FAILINGS
Security and communication lapses between the Secret Service and local law enforcement are to blame for not thwarting the July 13 assassination attempt against former President Donald Trump at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, according to a bipartisan interim Senate report released on Wednesday.
The report was jointly released by the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee and the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations—as the Secret Service faces continued scrutiny after two assassination attempts against the GOP presidential nominee.
One of the 12 findings in the report was that the Secret Service was informed of a suspicious individual with a rangefinder around the warehouse. The suspect, Thomas Matthew Crooks, ended up on the roof about 27 minutes before the shooting.
Communication between the Secret Service and local law enforcement was “siloed” and the service “did not ensure it could share information with local law enforcement partners in real-time,” according to the committee.
Additionally, a local law enforcement officer notified fellow officers about Crooks on the rooftop three minutes before the incident, according to the report.
Moreover, a Secret Service counter-sniper witnessed local law enforcement running toward the warehouse and did not notify Trump’s protective detail as that idea “did not cross [his] mind.”
Additional resources Trump’s Secret Service detail requested, such as more counter unmanned aerial system (C-UAS) personnel and equipment, were denied, advance agents told the committee, saying this would have been helpful.
The committee made recommendations such as Congress requiring the Secret Service “to identify defined roles and responsibilities for [Secret Service] personnel responsible for advance planning of any protective event.”
In a statement to The Epoch Times, Secret Service Chief of Communications Anthony Guglielmi said that the agency has reviewed the report, which he said is aligned with its report, and is working with Congress to address the findings.
—Jackson Richman
BOOKMARKS
The Israel Defense Forces chief has told his troops to gear up for a possible ground war in Lebanon. Maj. Gen. Herzi Halevi said that in addition to weakening Hezbollah, the operation would force their troops away from the border, clearing the way for Israelis from northern Israel to return home.
Former CDC director Dr. Robert Redfield has endorsed former President Donald Trump in his bid for the presidency, and expressed support for Robert F. Kennedy’s health initiatives. The endorsement came as a surprise, especially to Kennedy, who had been criticizing Redfield for years.
Congress has (finally) passed a continuing resolution to temporarily fund the government until Dec. 20, averting a possible shutdown that would have kicked in on Sept. 30 when previous funding expired. The bill sailed through both chambers, as it enjoyed wide bipartisan support, and members of Congress were eager to return to the campaign trail before the November election.
The UK government has warned its citizens to flee Lebanon as the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah is reaching a boiling point. The Brits are sending 700 troops to nearby Cyprus to assist escapees, even as they urge a de-escalation between the warring parties.
Special counsel Jack Smith may file a proposed 180-page legal brief related to his attempt to prosecute Donald Trump, a district judge has ruled. U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan dismissed concerns by Trump’s lawyers that such a wordy brief might interfere with his campaigning schedule saying “there needs to be some forward movement in this case, regardless of when the election is held.”
—Stacy Robinson
