Texas Law Banning Most Abortions Remains in Effect Following Supreme Court Decision

The Supreme Court as composed October 27, 2020 to present. Front row, left to right: Associate Justice Samuel A. Alito, Jr., Associate Justice Clarence Thomas, Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr., Associate Justice Stephen G. Breyer, and Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor. Back row, left to right: Associate Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh, Associate Justice Elena Kagan, Associate Justice Neil M. Gorsuch, and Associate Justice Amy Coney Barrett. Credit: Fred Schilling, Collection of the Supreme Court of the United States

Doctors, Family Members and Even Uber Drivers Could Potentially be Prosecuted Under New Law

Wednesday at midnight the most restrictive abortion law in the country went into effect in Texas,
effectively banning the procedure for most women and offering private citizens a $10,000 bounty to act as the law’s enforcers.

The law, SB 8 limits the window for abortions in the state to around six weeks, or as soon as a fetal heartbeat is detected. 

Following the bill’s passage in May, a triumphant Texas Governor Greg Abbot declared, “This bill ensures that every unborn child who has a heartbeat will be saved from the ravages of abortion.”

Opponents rallied to point out that it would be Texas women that would truly suffer under the directive since most women do not know they’re pregnant by then and 85 to 90 percent of procedures occur after six weeks according to abortion advocates. While the president of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists — which represents 58,000 physicians across the US — said the whole use of the term “heartbeat” in the bill was misleading.

“Arbitrary gestational age bans on abortion at six weeks that use the term ‘heartbeat’ to define the gestational development being targeted do not reflect medical accuracy or clinical understanding,” Dr. Ted Anderson said, adding.

“Pregnancy and fetal development are a continuum. What is interpreted as a heartbeat in these bills is actually electrically induced flickering of a portion of the fetal tissue that will become the heart as the embryo develops.”

There was some hope that the U.S. Supreme court would intervene at the last minute thanks to an emergency appeal from abortion providers, but a 5-4 vote late Wednesday by the 6-3 majority conservative court to allow the ban to remain in effect, dashed them — and may have spelled the beginning of the end for Roe v. Wade protections for the entire country. 

"The Act is a breathtaking act of defiance — of the Constitution, of this Court's precedents, and of the rights of women seeking abortions throughout Texas," Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote in a blistering dissent. "The Court should not be so content to ignore its constitutional obligations to protect not only the rights of women, but also the sanctity of its precedents and of the rule of law."

President Joe Biden stepped in with a warning of his own Thursday saying the law, "unleashes unconstitutional chaos and empowers self-anointed enforcers to have devastating impacts," in a statement directing federal agencies to act to protect the right to abortion enshrined in the high court's 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, adding, "Complete strangers will now be empowered to inject themselves in the most private and personal health decisions faced by women."

That violation of privacy, ironically, is what has allowed this “heartbeat bill” to go into effect whereas efforts by other states including Ohio, Georgia, Louisiana, Missouri, Alabama, Kentucky and South Carolina have been stopped by the courts.

Under the new law, which does not make exceptions for rape or incest, $10,000 will be rewarded to plaintiffs — who do not have to live in Texas, have any connection to the abortion or show injury from it, for each illegal abortion aided by the defendant. Defendants, even if they prevail, are not entitled to legal fees. 

Targets of such suits could include doctors, clinics, people who provide pay or counseling for the procedure and perhaps even someone who provides transportation, like an Uber or Lyft driver. 

"He believes that it's a woman’s right. It's a woman's body and it's her choice,” White House press sec. Jen Psaki says when asked why Pres. Biden—who is Catholic—would support abortion access. https://t.co/u6gammftjI pic.twitter.com/IkUvkHFa0K

— ABC News (@ABC) September 2, 2021

 

Officers, Medical Personnel Indicted in Death of Elijah McClain

Elijah McClain

Justice is neither guaranteed in this life nor is it always swift — but if you're patient enough sometimes it comes. 

The family of Elijah McClain, an unarmed black man killed in an encounter with police officers in Aurora, Colorado two years ago, is more hopeful than ever that is the case in the death of their son, after Colorado Attorney General  Phil Weiser announced Wednesday that the three police offices and two paramedics involved were indicted by a grand jury. 

BREAKING: Colorado AG Phil Weiser announces the grand jury returned a 32 count indictment against Aurora police officers involved in Elijah McClain’s death almost exactly two years ago. https://t.co/vlkV4uq3lr pic.twitter.com/LQKnMdPp5c

— CBS News (@CBSNews) September 1, 2021

"Late last Thursday, after careful and thoughtful deliberation, the grand jury returned a 32-count indictment against Aurora police officers Randy Roedema and Nathan Woodyard, former Aurora Police officer Jason Rosenblatt, and Aurora Fire Rescue paramedics Jeremy Cooper and Peter Cichuniec for their alleged conduct on the night of August 24, 2019, that resulted in Mr. McClain’s death," said Weiser at a press conference announcing the results of the lengthy investigation. "Each of the five defendants face one count of manslaughter and one count of criminally negligent homicide. Officers Roedema and Rosenblatt also each face a count of second-degree assault with intent to cause bodily injury and caused serious bodily injury to Mr. McClain. Both also face one count of a crime of violence related to the second-degree assault (bodily injury) charge."

Weiser added that in addition to the manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide charges, paramedics Cooper and Cichuniec, who are alleged to have administered a lethal dose of ketamine which prosecutors believe may have killed McClain also face:

• One count second-degree assault with intent to cause bodily injury and caused serious bodily injury,
• One count second-degree assault for recklessly causing serious bodily injury by means of a deadly weapon (Ketamine), and
• One count second-degree assault for a purpose other than lawful medical or therapeutic treatment, intentionally causing stupor, unconsciousness, or other physical or mental impairment or injury to Mr. McClain, by administering a drug (Ketamine) without consent.

Cooper and Cichuniec also face two counts of crimes of violence for each of the assault charges.

"Nothing will bring back my son, but I am thankful that his killers will finally be held accountable," said LaWayne Mosley, McClain's father, in a statement provided by his attorney.

It's something the family had trouble believing two years ago when the 23-year-old massage therapist and violin player died after Aurora police and medics, responding to a 911 call that he wore a face mask into a convenience store to buy iced tea — eventually forced him to the ground, placed him into a now-banned type of chokehold (carotid artery) and injected him with the tranquilizer Ketamine. No crime was reported by the caller. McClain was not armed.

“I can’t breathe. I can’t breathe please. I can’t. I can’t breathe. I can’t breathe, please stop," McClain — who according to his family choked on his own vomit, had a heart attack and never recovered —pleaded with officers before drawing his last breath in footage from the officer's bodycam footage.

ESPN Duped by Fake Football Team

Did the self-described “worldwide leader in sports” get duped into airing a football game between one of
the top high school football squads in the nation and an online academy with a dubious pedigree, a head coach with an active warrant and several players that may not have been eligible to play in the game?

Bishop Sycamore head coach Roy Johnson was fired Tuesday. 

Well, there’s no disputing the fact that defending high school national champion IMG Academy — a perennial gridiron powerhouse from Florida — faced off with Ohio-based school Bishop Sycamore Sunday in the Geico High School Football Kickoff on ESPN, beating the cleats off the Centurions, 58-0. 

The game, which was supposed to put two of the nation’s best teams on national display, was such a mismatch that the network’s own announcers began to question the legitimacy of Bishop Sycamore during the broadcast.

ESPN’s commendations WENT IN on Bishop Sycamore 💀 pic.twitter.com/RCJv46gOA3

— BuckeyeScoop.com (@kirk_barton) August 29, 2021

Shortly following the game other details began to emerge that put the whole affair in question. It was discovered that the contest was the team’s second in three days, putting player safety into question. Then it was reported that the school was 0-6 last year and didn’t seem to exist prior to last season.

By Tuesday things had really gone off the rails. Bishop Sycamore head coach Roy Johnson was fired for “a lot of things,” school director Andre Peterson told Chris Bumbaca of USA Today. One of which was the fact that he has an active bench warrant for failure to appear in a domestic violence case, which was eventually dropped to a criminal mischief charge, issued July 2 by the Delaware County Sheriff’s Office. He is also facing a pending fraud charge for defaulting on a $100,000 loan issued in April 2018 that was never repaid to First Merchants Bank, and a 2019 civil lawsuit filed by ARN Hospitality, says Johnson owes a balance of $110,685 to the group which owns a hotel he is alleged to have housed players at for a night in 2018. 

Add to that the fact that several players, parents and other associates of the team brought some pretty damming stories to light in the aftermath of the contest, it sure seems like ESPN should have been wary of ever approving the squad to be spotlighted on the national stage.

I talked to Aaron Boyd, a former Bishop Sycamore player and he exposed all their dark secrets.

It’s scary what they’re doing over there.

Article: https://t.co/xEIP9pOoWo pic.twitter.com/QEEC1pAiwL

— Zion 🇳🇬 (@ZionOlojede) August 31, 2021

For its part, the network tried to take the focus for the black off itself, issuing a statement Monday that threw Paragon Marketing Group — responsible for arranging the schedule for the Geico event — under the bus:

 We regret that this happened and have discussed it with Paragon, which secured the matchup and handles the majority of our high school event scheduling. They have ensured us that they will take steps to prevent this kind of situation from happening moving forward.

Whether or not that was enough to convince the world, that a network that prides itself on getting the facts and getting them first and employs hundreds of reporters across various mediums couldn’t figure out something it took less than a half for its own announcers to see remains to be seen.